


A Twist in the Story

by Fenrir_Lovell



Category: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Genre: AU, Character Death, F/M, Family Feels, Gen, Insane Asylums, Medical Torture, Other, Pack Dynamics, Psychological Torture, Romance, Slow Burn, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-21
Updated: 2017-11-09
Packaged: 2018-01-20 07:52:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 27,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1502588
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fenrir_Lovell/pseuds/Fenrir_Lovell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>OFC. Asylums, Packs and missing pieces of Victor and Logan's past. Will Cora be able to change the brothers for the better or will she only make things worse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Prologue: Cora's Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Re-Post from my Fanfiction account.   
> This is OC based so if you don't like OC's I suggest you go elsewhere for your entertainment otherwise please continue and enjoy.   
> ~Fen~

_'animal speak'_  
"Humanspeak"   
**"other languages"**

Corvina Aislynn Black was born in 1928. There were unfortunate complications with her birth, she was premature and her mother unfortunately did not survive the birthing process, Cora's weak body could not handle the stress and her dormant x-gene partially activated turning her half feral from birth. Her healing saved her life. But her survival was not a happy occasion. She looked just like her mother with black hair and mismatched eyes: one green and one purple. Her father couldn't handle it and took to ignoring the innocent child to the point of neglect.

Now the Blacks were a very well off family and a Maid took care of Cora until she was near seven, it was then that she started to develop other aspects of her mutant genes. She could speak to animals, her canines grew longer, and her ears developed a slight point. The maid took notice and shunned the girl as if she was unnatural. She informed the Cora's father of the changes. He had the girl locked into the attic room and had the maid call a priest. Thinking the child was possessed, the priest tried to exorcise Cora's 'demon' multiple times only to have the child attack him in fear, her instincts taking over. She was left alone after that and locked away from the world in the attic. Cora grew to resent her family as the years passed and withdrew into her mind and refused to speak except to the pair of large stray cats that visited her through the windows, a large Maine coon who she called Rasta and a lanky Savanna cat she named Pan.

Things took a turn for the worst just before her eleventh birthday. Her father's brother came to live with them he took an interest in Cora almost immediately. Cora knew something was different about this man and it wasn't a good different. There was something dark and almost slimy about him she could feel it. The night of her birthday he crept into her room. The look he gave her meant nothing good for her. She cowered back and growled, her cats hid in the shadows of the room. "You're such a pretty girl, Cora." her uncle leered and grabbed at her, pushing her tiny frame down on to the floor.

Cora hissed and pushed his face away from her. He slapped her, stunning her and ripped the buttons away from her dress. The cats reacted then determined to protect the little feral. Pan lunged at the man's face scratching at him while Rasta jumped on to his shoulders and dug sharp claws in to his scalp the man screamed and back handed the lanky cat away stunning it much like it's human, then grabbed Rasta by the scruff and flung him into a wall. The Maine coon Yowled in pain as it struck, startling the girl from her fear induced haze.

Seeing her only friends hurt she felt her fear bleed away into fury. She roughly kneed the man in the groin then launched herself forward and latched her fangs into his throat locking her jaw and growling deep in her chest. Her uncle let out a gurgling scream as he attempted to pull her off only to have her fangs sink deeper. He fell onto his back with a thump and struggled with the child. He finally removed her but as he pulled her away she took a large bloody chunk of his throat with her.

The felines retreated to the shadows as they heard pounding footsteps coming up the stairs. Mr. Black slammed the door open to see his brother lying dead on the floor with his throat torn open and the little freak standing over him her mouth smeared with blood and flesh. The maids that had come with him gasped in fear and horror at the sight. He yelled at one of them to call the asylum. Cora howled in pain as she was dragged and thrown into the tiny bathroom by her father. The door slammed and locked behind her.

She whimpered in pain and called to her cats when she heard the door of the attic room slam shut, "Pan! Rasta! Are you there? What's going on?"

The cats scratched the door to show they were there. _'I'm sorry, we can't open the door the lock is too high.'_ Pan meowed

_'We are both fine. And you ended the cruel human.'_ Rasta spoke hissing the last part in clear distaste for the human man who's corpse was now cooling on the attic floor.

"Good, listen Rasta, Pan... the humans are sending me away. I want you to both take care of each other-" The cats hissed in displeasure.

_'NO, we follow you. That's what we swore when we took your blood. Where ever they send you we will follow.'_ the Maine coon snarled and the savanna hissed in agreement.

Now Cora was a very smart girl regardless of her lack of education. She was quite aware that she wasn't completely human, so when Pan and Rasta had first stumbled through the broken attic window bloody and near death when she was eight. She had fed them her blood hoping and praying that it would save them as it had her. Miraculously it had and they continued to heal at a rapid rate from then on.

The child leaned against the door feeling genuinely touched by her familiars loyalty. "fine have it your way. But stay hidden I don't want you seen, they would kill you if they caught you." They both hissed their agreement and moved away from the door to hide as the trio heard multiple people tromping up the stairs. Cora moved away from the door pressing herself against the bathroom cabinets hissing as the door opened to reveal her father and a wicked looking older man in a depressing black suit and gray waist coat. The wicked man was flanked by two bulky men dress in drab gray wool clothes with leather gloves. He grinned at her maliciously, showing off crooked aged teeth and motion the two orderlies forward.

The men snatched her up roughly and she kicked and scratched snarling and snapping her teeth at the gloved hands. They tied her hands and dragged her down the narrow stairs and out of the house. In the drive was a large vehicle with mesh windows and the asylums name printed on the side. The doors were pulled open and she was tossed inside like a rag doll. Before the doors closed she saw Pan and Rasta's gold eyes glowing from the bushes waiting to follow. She grinned and the metal doors slammed closed.

**tbc...**

**A/N:** There will be more dialog and better writing in other chapters I promise. This was mostly for establishing backstory and I had a lot of trouble starting it... sorry and thanks for reading

~Fen~


	2. The Asylum

_'animal speak'_  
"Human speak"  
 **"other languages"**

Cora stood naked and cuffed in the center of the concrete room as they sprayed her down to rid her of blood. afterwords a young severe looking woman entered with a pair of sheers and had the orderlies tie her to a chair. She quickly went about chopping off Cora's long hair.

"such a shame really." the woman had muttered "such beautiful hair." Cora didn't react to any of the process except to growl menacingly when the woman clipped a bit to close to one of her slightly pointed ears.

Shortly after Cora was forced in to a pair of black stretchy shorts and a durable gray straight jacket. She surprisingly found that she liked it, at least while the arms were loose. She was escorted into a dingy office where she was reintroduced to the man from her house, he was holding a file and sneering at her bored appearance. "Do you know why your here miss Black?" Cora didn't respond. Even if she defended herself the humans wouldn't listen, to them she was just a freak and apparently also an insane blood thirsty monster. She grinned to her self. Not realizing how it would probably look to the man inspecting her.

The man narrowed his eyes at her behavior and wrote in the folder. He looked back at the girl in front of him, who was now starring off to her left boredly. "Miss Black my name is Director Moore. The information from your file tells me that you attacked a priest as a child, told your maid you could speak to animals, refused to socially interact with your family and most recently have begun acting like a wild animal which resulted in the murder of your uncle. Is this true?"

Again the Cora ignored him and Director Moore scowled. "Pay attention when I speak to you girl!" He grabbed Cora's face and made her look at him. She growled and bit the finger closest finger to her mouth. Moore yelped in pain and slapped her. She glared hatefully and bared her fangs she didn't like to be man-handled. "FRANKLIN!" A tall orderly stepped through the door. "Take our guest to her new home." Franklin nodded and laced the girls straight jacket, pulling her carefully along by the back of her neck, not forcefully but guiding.

Her 'home' was on the first floor. There was a single thread bare mattress on the floor in one corner it was accompanied with a ratty gray quilt and a pillow. There was a toilet and a sink against the wall across from the bed and a small unpaned but barred window set high into the wall opposite the heavy metal door. She grinned. Perfect. Cora laid comfortably on the mattress, as the orderly had politely undone her arms when they reached the room. She dozed lightly for maybe an hour before she heard noise from the window. She opened her mismatched eyes and watched as a pair of cats perched themselves between the bars in the window. she smiled gently "Pan, Rasta. I'm here." The cats immediately jumped from the window and into the room the curled around her on the bed.

 _'Your safe!'_ Pan purred. He was the biggest worrier she had ever seen and was such a mother hen. He nuzzled his head in to her now short hair. Rasta mearly curled to her side and butted his head into her ribs affectionately.

Cora hugged them both. "Remember no one is allowed to see you." both cats bobbed their heads obediently and she smiled as she drifted back into a light sleep.

**TBC...**

**A/N:** okay so the first few chapters are going to basically lay the ground work for Cora's future personality traits and issues they are going to be relatively short sweet and to the point only really touching on the most important things other details can be brought up later. there is part two of the asylum next and she will be older and it will also include more cruelty and her imminent escape. bwahahahahah lol ttyl~


	3. Asylum Part II

**_1943_ **

Four years. Four long, hellish, and obnoxiously boring years. Cora snarled as she lay on her bed trying to contain the shaking, her latest bout with the electroshock 'therapy' hadn't gone over well. She had fried the machine and her body was having more trouble than normal dealing with the new influx of electricity. She snapped her fangs and sparks flew.

The treatment had started two months ago and instead of it slowly destroying/melting her brain and deteriorating her mind further her feral healing ability made her body adapt, but stunted the rest of her feral abilities in the process. The electricity became a part of her and she could use it and absorb it, but it had to resettle every time she was shocked. Which was painful.

The pair of felines at her side watched her worriedly. _'master?'_ Pan nudged her and Cora hissed.

"I'll be fine go on ahead, and stick to the plan it WILL work. It has to..." The cats nodded and leaped through the window. The petite feral hissed as her body seized again. She was at her max capacity, which meant she couldn't hold anymore and she needed to discharge some of the excess electricity. she grinned as the Lock on the door creaked. Good bye mister orderly. the unfortunate man who brought her meals and liked to smack her around entered, Thomas, she believed his name was.

She smirked as he dropped the dinner tray to the ground and turned to leave, she leaped from the bed and locked her legs around his waist from behind. Her straight jacket sleeves wrapping around the front of his throat and mouth to muffle the screams he would no doubt release. She sunk her fangs in to his neck until she felt the elongated canines graze his spine at which point she released the excess electricity and fried the man's nervous system and probably his brain... oh well.She grinned as she felt him begin to drop.

Cora glared down at the body, the resentment she had once only held for her family had evolved over the years into a loathing towards humanity in general. She pulled the keys off the corpse and unlocked her door. She peaked out and saw the halls clear slowly she crept towards the kitchens, deliveries were supposed to be made tonight after the kitchen was cleared from dinner. Its surprising how loose tongued people seem to be around supposed loonys.

Eventually Cora made it to the kitchen surprised to find that it was momentarily empty as well. She had just enough time to slip in and hide behind a pair of large trash receptacles near the back door, before said door swung open and a elderly man waddled in with a crate filled with what appeared to be turnips. She rushed through the door before it closed and pressed herself into a wall's shadow. The man hadn't seen her.

She waited in the shadows for another few minutes until she finally saw the familiar pair of cats perch themselves on the wall next to the truck. The three hid themselves in the back of the truck in part of a broken crate that was partially covered by a torn tarp. They heard the man enter and leave the truck a number of times leaving behind multiple crates. They were not found, thankfully.

Cora sighed in relief when she heard the back of the truck slam shut, the old man climbed into the cab and they heard the engine rumble to life. Cora sat in fearful silence for what seemed like and probably was hours. Slowly the van pulled to a stop and she put all her senses on high alert. She heard the cab door open and close, then the man's uneven steps as he waddled away from the van, there was a creaking of old wood and then another door.

Cora carefully woke Pan and nudged Rasta ahead. "go scout ahead."

The cat nodded and slipped to the rear door, she cracked it open and let him out. It was a few minutes before he returned _'the old one has gone to his den master. He wont see us if we leave now and keep to the shadows.'_

Cora nodded and slipped out of the van with the savanna cat at her heels. The carefully snuck through the yard and off the property. When they reached the dirt road she stopped. "which way?"

She looked at the cats who both raised there noses to the air and turned both directions. _'the left smells strongly of human I suspect they have dwellings that direction.'_ Pan hissed out.

 _'The right smells faintly of both human and animal. There may be a forest or abandoned human dwellings?'_ Rasta meowed, both cats looked to Cora waiting for instructions.

"No more humans, they only bring misery and pain. We will survive on our own." she turned abruptly after her statement and started down the road to the right.

**TBC...**

**A/N:**  So next chappie is gonna introduce our favorite brothers. Now work with me here and keep an open mind they will be themselves but Victor and Cora are going to have a different kind of relationship she brings out the more family oriented side in him much like James/Logan does. Cora is going to be very iffy about Logan at first since he more strongly resembles a human in both looks and mannerisms. Wolverine is for the most part going to be refered to as James or Jimmy (always by Victor and Cora) but will be called Logan by other characters later on.


	4. First Meetings and Packs

_**1944** _

"D'you smell that Victor?"

Victor looked up as his brother. "Smell what Jimmy?"

"It Smells like blood." Victor sniffed the air and his eyes narrowed in agreement.

"Well do you want to go check it out?" Victor asked in a bored tone. They had been living in a cabin in this forest for a few months, since the end of the last war. They were relaxing and just living for once... Needless to say they were both a little bored and the idea of something happening was promising.

James nodded.

"OW, OW, OWW, Ouch!" Cora yelled as the bullet wounds healed. Pan stood guard as Rasta licked the blood away. Cora hissed when his rough tongue hit a still healing wound and he gave her the eye and pulled away.

 _'You lost a lot of blood.'_ Pan meowed, concern coating his words.

Cora frowned and looked at her now torn and bloody straight jacket "I'll be fine, I just need to rest." she stood slowly and tried not to stumble, the lightheaded-ness making it near impossible to walk straight.

They moved further into the trees, until she found a place she was comfortable enough to let her guard down. "Keep watch?" She asked her cats weakly. They both nodded and she drifted off against a tree. Rasta curled up next to her and stared out into the trees ears twitching while Pan scaled the tree and watched from above.

Twenty minutes, that was how long it took Victor to track down the source of the blood. He stared down at the prone form on the leafy ground from a tree, James looked as well. "its a girl..."

Victor growled "She's just a cub! Wh-" He was cut off by a loud yowl and a lanky cat jumped from a tree to join the cat already standing next to the girls body.

"I know you're there. Pan's nose is never wrong. Come out." James and Victor shared a confused look before jumping out of the tree and landing a good ten feet away from the girl. The cats hissed and moved to stand between the brothers and the girl. Victor instinctively dropped into a crouch, eyes narrowed at the cats.

The girl didn't even open her eyes. "What do you want?"

James gave a startled blink at the amount of blood covering the young girl. "How are you alive? Your clothes are soaked through with blood. What ever happened you shouldn't have survived it." Victor nodded agreeing with his brother silently.

"I'm fine." Her eyes stayed closed and body unmoving.

"Bullshit." Cora snarled and forced her eyes open she flipped off her back and into a crouch, her mismatched eyes taking in her surroundings and the two men in front of her. Crap. They were huge, both were tall and well muscled. They stood with an air of authority that spoke of experience and knowledge. These men were strong and they knew how to fight... crap... again.

Cora bared her fangs and backed away warily the pair of cats following her lead still hissing out threats. Both Victor and James' eyes widened in shock at the animalistic behavior and the display of fangs. She was a feral? James took a step forward. "We just want to help you kid"

The female feral just growled and snapped her teeth "Humans don't help, they just destroy!" James saw the flash of fear hidden deep in her eyes while the pair of cats just hissed in what seemed like agreement. James briefly wondered how much they really understood.

Victor snarled and mimicked the girls stance, baring his own fangs and the girl froze, her mismatched eyes wide. Confusion clouding her mind, her instincts screamed at her to submit to the alpha before her, but she refused to back down and fearfully and blindly launching herself at him. Victor caught her mid-air by the throat and pinned her to the ground quickly and efficiently. Leaning down, he grazed his fangs across the side of her throat and growled in his chest. All her struggles stopped immediately as her instincts took over and she whined tilting her head back and baring her throat in submission.

James watched with wide eyes as Victor pulled his fangs away and nosed her neck in acceptance. Victor sat back on his heals and pulled the girl off her back. "Whats your name cub?" She gave a nervous look to James and scooted closer to Victor.

"Cora. Corvina Aislynn Black."

Victor nodded "Names Victor," he motioned to the other man."That's my brother, James, I call him Jimmy."

Cora nodded hesitantly still watching James warily. Victor stood and scooped her up very much like a toddler, she yelped and wrapped her arms around his neck. " How 'bout we get you cleaned up, huh?"

Cora blinked and a confused look passed over her delicate face "Why? Why Do you want to help me?"

Surprisingly it was James who answered the tiny feral. " 'cause we didn't have anyone to help us when we needed it."

Cora didn't say anything after that except to call for her cats to follow. She let herself be carried and pressed her face against Victors chest trying to absorb as much of his heat as possible her body having gone cold from blood loss. James was a little unnerved, he could not recall Victor ever being this gentle before. Yet he treated this cub as if she was made of glass, well after the initial throw-down at least.

To be honest he'd expected his brother to kill her after she had attacked, but no he had calmed her and managed to get her to be agreeable. They reached the cabin and Victor kicked open the door. He dropped Cora gently onto the kitchen table and told her to stay. "Watch her Jimmy and open the window for her cats." James nodded and opened the kitchen window before moving to the table, he sat lazily in one of the kitchen chairs and took the opportunity to look Cora over more carefully, taking in the blood, Bare feet and the straight jacket. He heard her speak but only vaguely understood s shed whispered and was turned away from him.

The pair of cats hopped onto the sill and into the room drawing his attention. "What are their names?" He was trying to make small talk to ease the growing tension in the room.

She gave him a look that sat between wary and confused. "The Savanna is Pan and the Maine coon is Rasta." She looked at the cats and spoke softly to them, peting the bulkier one, "I don't understand this one." The cats hissed in laughter and moved off to explore the house.

"How'd you lose so much blood?" James asked into the new silence that came after the cats left.

"It's not all mine." James' eyes widened and Victor reentered the room with a chuckle as he heard the tail end of their conversation. He was wearing clean clothes, carrying a couple towels and a large shirt. "Some hunter shot at Rasta in the forest. I lost my temper and my focus. He shot me twice" She paused and pointed at the pair of bloody holes in her jacket, one at her right shoulder and another a few inches above her left hip-bone. "The rest is his. I ripped his throat out with my teeth." Victor laughed loudly.

James rolled his eyes and wet one of the towels at the kitchen sink, handing it back to Victor who began wiping the blood and dirt off Cora's face. She closed her eyes and let him. Next he unbuckled the straight jacket and pulled it off of her leaving her sitting on the table in a black sports bra and black shorts. Victor growled at her emaciated form. "When was the last time you ate cub?" Cora shivered from the chill air in the kitchen. "Some time last week. It's harder to hunt in the winter and when you can't use your hands..." She motioned to the straight-jacket sleeves. "I'm just lucky it hasn't snowed yet." This time she wiggled her toes. Victor growled again but moved on to prod at the places she had been shot, they were healed cleanly no scars.

Satisfied for the moment, he pulled her off the table and handed her the shirt and second towel. "the bathroom is down the hall first door on the left. Go take a bath or a shower." Cora nodded and scurried away.

Cora was VERY confused. Her entire life was filed to the brim with hate, neglect and pain. She didn't quite know how to handle all the positive attention she seemed to be receiving. She sighed and started the shower.

James sighed when the shower started. "We keepin' the kid Victor?"

Victor raised a eyebrow. "She's just a cub we can't very well send her back out there to get shot at? 'sides she's like us Jimmy... I don't see any problems with having a pack, It might even be better."

"A pack, huh?" James crossed his legs at the ankle and leaned back in his chair. "I think that sounds... kinda nice actually. 'sides you seem kinda attached bub" He Smirked.

Victor turned from the fridge with a growl throwing a beer at his little brothers head. James caught it with a grin. "Shut Yer trap Jim and go get us some rabbits!"

James just continued to grin as he left for the shed. It was a few minutes later that Cora emerged from the bathroom. Victor's shirt engulfing her tiny frame, her shorts barely peeking out from the bottom and the neck nearly hanging off one shoulder. She shuffled into the kitchen and stood in the doorway glancing between her feet and the floor. Victor sighed putting down his beer. "What is it cub?"

Cora bit her lip "When do you want me to leave..."

"Your Not." Victor growled and Cora's head shot up as she stared at the man with wide eyes.

"W-What?"

"You heard me cub. Now either sit your little ass down at the table or help me get dinner ready." Cora nodded dumbly and followed Victor around the kitchen following instructions as he gave them.

James came back with a couple of skinned rabbits and went about cutting them apart for the stew Victor was putting together. They fed the cats the entrails and chunks of meat left from the stew. "So what exactly can you do kid?" James asked leaning back comfortably in his chair.

Cora looked to Victor, who simply raised an eyebrow. "Umm... I can talk to animals, heal, natural animal instincts, my fangs, but any other of my abilitys are stunted."

"Stunted?" James asked not sure he was going to like the answer.

"My healing ability forced my body to adapt to the constant electrical pulses from the shock treatments. So my body took on the ability to absorb, hold and discharge electricity so it wouldn't fry my brain. But I can't develop the Any other abilities I was supposed to because it happened while I was still developing and my body had to save itself, it kinda shut down the other feral abilitys to make room I guess."

James and Victor stared. A furious snarl ripped from Victor's throat. "Shock Treatments?"

Cora cowered down in her chair, pulling her legs up and resting her chin on her knees trying to figure out how best to explain. "M-my father hated me, he was just looking for an excuse to get rid of me. I inadvertantly gave him one when I killed my uncle on my eleventh birthday." She paused at their once again shocked faces "In my defence he did throw Rasta, hit Pan, and attempt to rape me... but anyway my father came in, saw what I did and had me commited that same night."

Both Victor and James growled low in their throats. "How old are you cub?"

Cora thought carefully. "I think I just turned 16? I left the asylum around this time last year... and it took me forever to get to Canada on foot and avoid all the main roads and citys and towns." Victor nodded, he stood and moved around the table. He scooped Cora into his arms and left for the spare bedroom, the cats following behind.

Victor dropped her onto the bed and left, throwing a 'get some sleep over his shoulder'.

**TBC...**

**A/N:** I know that Victor is really ooc so far but he'll still be badass I promise! Cora just really needs an affectionate adult/brother/dad like figure in her life. He'll still be a gruff and obnoxious manly man just not with Cora till shes better adjusted. Plus Victor having another close attachment aside from his brother might have just kept him from going off the deep end when Jimmy left and I couldnt use James because hes most likely going to play a very different roll in her life later on and he needs to be able to see her in a different light than Victor. Plus she's too wary of him at this point and yes even though Logan is a feral he shows it much less obviously then his brother does. She does warm up to him though!


	5. What a Pack is...

_**1945** _

"VICTOR WAKE UP!" The shout was followed by a sudden weight landing on his chest, the alpha feral slowly cracked open his eyes and growled at the tiny girl perched on his abdomin. Cora mearly stared down at him mismatched eyes sparkling with false innocence and barely hidden mirth.

"Cub, what have I told you about jumping on me in the mornings?" He growled.

"Not to," she monotoned, "but you're sleeping to late and I'm bored!" She whined, whipping out the puppy-dog eyes that only James seemed to be mostly immune to.

Victor sighed "Fine."

Cora hopped off of the large feral and cheered at her sucess. "Jimmy made breakfast, by the way."Victor nodded and she bounced out of his room.

When Victor finally emerged from his bedroom he found Cora and James sprawled out on the sofa. Cora laying with her head in James' lap, Rasta layng across her thighs and stomach and Pan spread on the back on the sofa behind James neck. Cora was conversing softly with Rasta while Pan slept. The older feral ran his fingers gently through the girl's choppy hair, oblivious to his brothers presence. Victor grinned and silently moved into the kitchen so as not to disturb the lounging pair of mutants.

The scene he had encountered had become a fairly regular occurance in the last few months. It had started a few weeks after they had taken the cub in... Cora had woken the brothers in the middle of the night, screaming in memorized pain, caught in the throes of a night terror. These terrors were nothing like the simple nightmares that Jimmy occasionaly suffered from. No matter what Victor tried he couldn't seem to bring her out of it.

He was to afraid to hurt her and destroy the frail trust she had in him. As a last resort James climbed onto her bed and carefully pinned the thrashing girl down, he growled deep in his chest and hugged the tiny frame to him. The thrashing and snapping of her jaw, that sent sparks flying, slowed carefully to a stop and her body was overtaked with shivers as she whimpered in her throat and clung to him. She uncurled a bit as the darkness of unconsciousness slowly faded out and she gradualy cracked open green and purple eyes, James just held her as she shook. When he'd carded one hand through her still short hair, a purr broke from her throat and she practicaly melted into his arms. Since then they slowly built up an at first tentative friendship that quickly blossomed into a very close one, Victor was very glad to see his makeshift pack coming together so nicely.

Victor sighed as he sat at the kitchen table. The little feral had definitely changed things, Cora had brought out a softer side in both men that they had believed to be long dead. "Victor?"

"Hmm?" Victor aknowledged the tiny mutant, not looking up from his breakfast.

"Teach me how to fight." His eyes snapped up to meet hers.

"No."

Cora bristled "What? Why Not?"

"Because you're young and you shouldn't have to fight and if I have any say, you won't." He narrowed his eyes and gave her hard look, Cora snarled and stormed out of the kitchen, he groaned when he heard her bedroom door slam.

James plopped himself into the chair across from him. "That went well,Huh?"

"Shut up. Is it really so bad that I don't want this life for her?" Victor asked his brother in what sounded like an almost tired tone.

"Shes not really gonna have much choice Vic, She an animal, a predetor. You can't honestly expect her to ignore her instincts and hide instead of fighting to protect her pack?" James looked at his brother with a raised eyebrow.

"No, I suppose I can't," Victor sighed "but neither of our style's of fighting would work for her. She's to small and not enough muscle."

"She's quick though...What about the twins?" That wasn't something either of them really wanted to consider at the moment...

"That's not exactly a car drive away Jim..."

"Well you got any better ideas bub?" Victor scowled at his brother giving him an annoyed look for his sass.

"For now, we teach her how to survive." James nodded shortly.

Victor stood and went down the hallway. Cora nearly screamed when her bedroom door slammed open, abruptly ending her childish pouting. Victor didn't speak as he snatched her off her bed and tossed her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He carried Cora through the house, James standing to follow as they passed the kitchen and out of the cabin to the front yard where Victor dropped his hostage to the ground and waited for her to get her bearings. "You wanna learn Cub" Cora nodded "then start learning. Go." Victor pointed out into the forest "Try and mask your scent and hide. Jimmy and I are gonna hunt you. When we find you we'll start by pointing out what you did wrong then we'll keep doing it until you get it right." The little feral nodded again with wide eyes, then jumped into action when Victor growled at her to 'get her ass movin'.

**TBC...**

**A/N:** this chappie is mostly about Cora and the brothers lives after they start functioning more smoothly, they seem more family like dont they? well I've also started Coras survival training with Victor and Jimmy. bwahahahah! ohh the torture! lol jkjk. ahh, feral mutant boot camp... how to be one with your inner animal 101 lol and victor does indeed flat out refuse to train her in hand to hand. he wants her trained properly or not at all. oh and the twins will be brought up again later they may or may not play a semi signifigant roll in this story... they are ocs but deff not main characters.


	6. Survival and Moving forward

_**1949** _

The thin, dark haired girl scowled to herself as she made her way through the town marketplace. The large pair of cats flanking her making a few people eye her curiously; she just sighed and adjusted her basket. In the last few years Victor, James, and Cora had taken to traveling. They were currently staying in a small town in Italy. Victor had not been kidding when he had said he would be teaching her how to survive. At this point she knew how to track, identify most poisons, hunt bare handed and with a weapon, dry/cure her own meats, how to hide and stalk without being detected, how to steal without being caught, she could lie her way out of just about anything (except with Jimmy and Vic of course...), and she could speak Spanish, German, Italian, and Russian, in basics at least.Victor had told her she should learn the language of where ever they visited and she had taken it to heart.

She was exploring a new part of the town, it was shadier (like drug-dealer shady) and much less populated. She cocked her head to the side to listen when she heard shouting from a nearby alley, curious she followed the shouts down said alley. The narrow alley went on for a short distance before spilling out into a large courtyard that was completely boxed in by buildings. From what she could see there were three other alley's that connected to it, however what caught her attention was what was going on in the middle of the yard. There was a dug out pit in the center of the yard and it was surrounded by men and even a few women, but down in the pit there were two large dogs.

Cora gasped as she realized what this was. Dog fights. "Pan, Rasta, go hide up on that rooftop. Do Not come down 'till I call for you." the cats nodded and complied moving to the aforementioned roof.

Cora however, angrily made her way through the crowd hissing when people did not move out of her way. When she got to the ring she watched frozen in abject horror as the pair of dogs tore into each other at their masters angry commands. The dogs were roughly the same size both large and heavily muscled, one was solid black with horribly cropped off ears, lots of wrinkles and covered in old and new scars. The other was a brindle of what seemed to be the same breed and looked slightly younger, it had un-cropped ears which were currently torn and bleeding. The Brindle snarled and ripped its head away further tearing its ears and shoved its body against the older dog knocking him off his paws. The older dog stayed on the ground, winded. Its owner shouted at it angrily as the other dog circled menacingly. **"Tu bestia stupida, alzarsi o ti ammazzo io!"(1)**

Cora growled but didn't move. the younger dog jumped at the downed dog again but the older dog rolled aside and caught one of his opponents legs in his mouth pulling it out from under him and making him stumble, this gave him the time he needed to get to his feet. Cora continued to watch the dogs and turned to the man next to her and politely asked how long this fight had been going for, he responded with a sadistic chuckle **"quasi un'ora, il nero proprio non si arrenderà, non importa quante volte ha messo giù."(2)** at this cora gaped, no wonder the dogs were so tired. she turned her attention back to the fight when a loud yelp resounded from the pit.

The older dog had pinned the younger on his back, teeth at its throat. The younger responded by roughly kicking out with its powerful backlegs until he dislodged the older dog with a heavy hit to the stomach. The older dog went down again and this time did not get back up within the count, despite his owners livid screaming. Cora continued to watch as the younger dog was declared the winner and led from the pit. The crowd mostly dispersed but the young feral had yet to take her eyes from the dog still lying in the pit. Her attention was immedietly drawn away when she heard the sound of a gun being cocked. her attention focused on the supposed owner as he took aim at the dog. It just looked up sadly before dropping its head back to the ground. Cora's eyes widened and she jumped into the pit. **"No, non sparargli!"(3)** (A/N: the rest of the bold in this chapter is spoken in italian but will by written in english cuz im super lazy. I might go back and fix it later tho. maybe.)

The man looked up at her and sneered,  **"why shouldnt I? He's useless if he can't win fights and I have two more at home."**

 **"Then go home to your other two and leave him be. I will take him and save you the bullets."** She growled and gave him a look that promised pain if he did not comply with her wishes. The man made an ugly face at being ordered around by a young woman.

Finaly he lowered his gun and glared at her **"Fine, the beast is your problem now."** he sneered at her and stalked out of the pit and down an alley.

She glared after him until she could no longer see his back then turned back to the dog, it eyed her warily but made no move to get up. she carefully crouched a few feet from him. **"Are you alright?"** the dogs head raised in shock and confusion. **"I am not human, I won't harm you. Now, are you alright?"**

 _'I'm fine, just old and tired. why did you not let him kill me? I am weak and of no further use as a fighter.'_ the old dog huffed.

Cora scowled **"My name is Cora, what is yours dog?"**

_'Apollo.'_

**"Well Apollo, I did not let him kill you because I can help you. But only if you will accept it and promise to help me in return."** Cora raised an eyebrow and waited for Apollo to respond.

_'How can you help me, little not-human?'_

Cora laughed. **"Well for starters I'm a mutant. a feral mutant. I have healing abilitys that I can pass to animals that I choose to bond with. Doing this gives you a connection to me. you basicaly become my child/sibling. my blood will continue to heal your body, as well as make you stronger and faster, as well as extend your life until I die."**

The dog seemed to think carefully about her explination. _'and why me,little feral?'_

Cora's eyes softened. **"You have a strong heart. No fear. You went into that fight probably knowing you would lose and yet you fought anyway."**

Brown canine eyes widened a little as Apollo stared at the small girl before him. Finaly he nodded. _'I will bond with you.'_

Cora smiled and nodded **"First you must promise you will never harm the other pack members on purpose."**  She gave him a serious look and waited for him to nod, which he did. She then sank her fangs into her hand and held it out to the dog, who licked the blood away. Apollo's eyes glowed gold briefly before settling back to their light brown.

Gradually Apollo sat up, he licked Cora's hand again as it healed. She smiled at her new familiar and pat his head. **"Do you want to meet your brothers now?"**

Apollo inclined his head and watched her call to the large pair of cats on a nearby roof. They jumped down and walked to her side eyeing the huge dog warily. "He will not hurt you. Pan, Rasta this is Apollo." The pair of cats glanced at each other then back at the dog. They carefully crept forward and sniffed at the black dogs large paws. Apollo just watched them carefully, he looked back at Cora for some indication of what he should do to find her smiling at the three of them. Apollo gently pawed at Pan and licked him across the head making Rasta jump back and away from the huge attacking tongue. Apollo looked up at his new master for approval.

Cora just laughed and pet all three animals. "lets go, Victor and James are expecting us with groceries." The animals nodded and followed her back down the alley. When they got back to the shopping district. She went first to the fruit and vegetable carts, she looked at Apollo. "hold this please" she asked as she held out the large, handeled wicker basket. the dog opened his mouth and accepted the handle. He sat patiently as Cora added different fruits and vegetables. She paid the man and tried to take the basket, only to be growled at. She raised her hands in in a placating manner. "Fine you can carry it!"

Apollo huffed in agreement, he followed with the cats as she moved on to the butchers shop. There she bought four large slabs of meat and two fish. The butcher wrapped them and Cora added them to the basket. The butcher raised an eyebrow. **"You trust the dog with your meats?"**

Cora raised an eyebrow in return. **"I trust the dog with my life."** The man stared after her stunned as she walked away from his stall the unleashed dog following along with a pair of large cats who seemed undeterred by the large intimidating dog. When they arrived back at the appartment they were staying in Cora unlocked the door and gestured for Apollo to go ahead along with Pan and Rasta, closing and locking the door behind herself.

The cats ran off after they entered and Apollo sat in the foyer and waited for further instructions. Cora smiled at him and scratched him behind his cropped off ears. "Take that stuff to the kitchen please, put it on the table. I'm gonna see where Vic and Jimmy are... Don't attack anyone!" The dog nodded slightly and walked to the room that she pointed out.

Cora walked down the hall to the bedrooms, she had just heard stuck her head into Victors bedroom when she heard her name being shouted from the kitchen. She shook her head and ran back down the hall, she skidded to a stop in the kitchen doorway. She raised her eyebrow at James who was sitting calmly at the kitchen table with the enormous dog at his feet staring him down and growling lightly. "A friend of yours?" Cora laughed.

"Apollo." she said in both introduction and to get the dogs attention. "He's pack Apollo, that's enough." Apollo's growling stopped immedietly and he sniffed at James' feet and pants, nudging at one of his crossed arms so he could sniff his hands as well. When he seemed satisfied and James thoroughly annoyed, the dog simply flopped across the kitchenette floor by the chair Cora sat in. "Where's Vic?" Cora asked after Apollo had finished his inspection.

"I dunno, the couch maybe? he was whining about you taking to long with the food so I told him to go take a nap." James leaned back in his chair and recrossed his arms. "Whats with the bear?" he asked lightly nudging Apollo with his foot, making the dog huff.

"His owner was gonna shoot 'em and he was really beat up. So I bonded with him."

"So we're stuck with him too?"

Cora nodded distractedly as Pan pranced into the room. "Pan, go find Vic and wake him up. We need to start dinner soon." The cat nodded and went in search of his prey.

_**THREE MINUTES LATER** _

 

"CORA!" Pan shot like a bullet through the apartment into the kitchen and under her chair. Victor following close behind.

Cora leaned forward on the table, resting her chin on one hand and grinned at her alpha. "Yeeess?"

"Control your furry little terrors or they're sleeping outside." He said with an added snarl for good measure.

"Awww, he was just tryin to tell you to come help with dinner, It's not his fault you sleep like the dead." James snorted and Victor turned hs glare on him. "Brats, the both of you."

He pulled out the last chair and flopped into it, his foot bumping into Apollo's nose in the process. causeing the dog to jerk back and sneeze. "...What was that?"

Cora looked sheepish. "That was the reason dinner was late?" Victor sighed and Cora smiled "Go on Apollo, go say hello to your new alpha." Apollo looked up at her from the floor before standing and eyeballing Victor over the tabletop Victor just stared back. After a few moments the dog made his way around the table towards Victor never breaking eye contact, when he stood in front of Victor(who had turned in his seat) he stood stock still and let loose a loud growl. Victor just stared harder and bared his fangs and let loose an equaly loud growl. At this the dog sat and let his tongue hang out of his mouth in a happy pant. Victor just raised an eyebrow and put out his hand, Apollo sniffed it carefully then drenched it thoroughly in saliva.

Both brothers grimaced and Cora laughed hysterically. "Dinner?" Victor asked wiping his hand dry on his pants.

"Oh, yeah!" She opened the basket and unwrapped one of the slabs of meat and the two fish she whistled and the cats bounded into the room. She tossed each of them a fish and gave the meat to Apollo, who sprawled back out on the floor to enjoy his meal.

"There are three more slabs of meat in there and fruit and veggies. I shopped, you cook." She pushed the basket across the table and left the room.

**TBC...**

**A/N:** Okay so new pet/companion. Any way here are your translations (1) "Tu bestia stupida, alzarsi o ti ammazzo io!" : "You stupid beast, get up or I'll kill you!"   
(2) "quasi un'ora, il nero proprio non si arrenderà, non importa quante volte ha messo giù." : "almost an hour, the black just won't give up, no matter how many times he gets put down."  
(3) "No, non sparargli!" : "No, don't shoot!"


	7. Family Time and Family Ties

**_-1952-_ **

"Please, please, please!"

"No Cub I don't do picnic's." Victor tried to give Cora a stern look but ultimately failed when he got an eyeful of those pleading purple and green eyes.

Cora turned them onto James "Jimmy, talk to him, please? Make him come!"

James put up his hands "If he won't come for you he won't for me."

Cora's eyes widened and her pout grew. She turned back to Victor, "Please Vic it's supposed to be a family outing. You have to come!" Victor looked between his Cora and his brother, who was standing behind her his arms crossed and a smirk growing on his face as he watched his brothers resolve crumble.

Victor let out a growling sigh and rubbed a hand over his short hair "Alright cub, you win." Cora grinned and hugged him around the waist with a squeal. Victor sighed and carded a hand through her shoulder length black hair. A thank you was mumbled into his stomach and she pulled away grabbing the heavy basket off the kitchen table only for it to be snatched from her hands by James.

"I'll carry it, it's heavy." James didn't make eye contact as he walked out of their temporary apartment with the basket of food. Leaving Cora and Victor to gather the blanket and animals and lock up behind them. It was a short walk to the picnicking area of the local park and things were set up easily and quickly between the three of them.

"It's such a beautiful day" Cora said with a relaxed sigh and leaning back into James side.

He wrapped his arm comfortably around her shoulders and rested his chin on her head watching Victor wrestle with Apollo in the grass and the cats sunbathing on the blanket a few feet away. "It is, isn't it?"

"Jimmy?"

James looked down at Cora at the sound of his name "Hmm?"

"Is this what family is supposed to be like?" James' eyes widened a fraction and he hugged the girl a bit tighter, no not girl she wasn't even a child any more. She'd been with them for nearly eight years now. She was an adult and it wasn't just him and Vic anymore; he realized with a start that this tiny broken girl had done what he thought was impossible, She'd made them a family. "James?" he looked down at Cora again to see wide mismatched eyes staring back at him.

James gave her a light squeeze and kissed the top of her head. "Yeah kid we're a family." A huge smile spread across the tiny feral's face and she settled back into James side.

* * *

_**-1955-** _

Cora tried not to cry to loudly as she leaned against her bedroom door and listened to Victor and James fight. "No Victor we can't go. Besides what about Cora, are you just planning on abandoning her?"

She heard a low growl and felt Apollo press closer to her left side and Rasta to her right. She hugged pan to her chest and buried her tear streaked face in his fur. "Of course not, she's pack! You never abandon your pack, but we can't take her with us and we can't leave her behind. We have to do something Jim. It's a war; we can't just not do anything, not this time."

There was a heavy sigh and she heard a chair scrape against the floor. "I know, I know," Another sigh. "but what? I won't leave her all by herself."

"The twins, we've thought about it before. She'd be safe and they could teach her, make her stronger."

"I just don't know, Vic. Let's just talk about it in the morning. We have to tell her you know."

"I know we'll talk tomorrow. Tell her everything. I promise."

Cora sighed and stood from her curled position. Dropping Pan to the floor and stumbling towards her bed. _'Master?'_ Pan meowed after her, Rasta and Apollo looking equally worried.

"Let's just go to bed guys, I'm really tired." The animals shared a look and followed her to bed.

* * *

 

_**-Next Morning-** _

"NO! No, no, no, no! I'm not going!" Apollo stood next to the semi-hysterical girl as Pan and Rasta watched from beneath the kitchen table.

"Cora, please. At least try to be reasonable…" James tried. Victor watched from the doorway as his cub completely lost her temper.

"Reasonable? You want me to be reasonable? You're fucking abandoning me in a foreign country, and you're asking me to be reasonable?" she let out a low snarl and kicked over a kitchen chair.

Victor let out a growl and decided it was time to intervene. He grabbed Cora by the back of the neck and pulled her towards him; he picked her up and sat her on the table. "We're not abandoning you cub we're trying to send you some where safe. We have to go and we want to make sure you're protected. We know the twins they'll take good care of you. We're gonna send them a letter tonight. You are going, end of story."

Cora's bottom lip quivered and her mismatched eyes watered. She roughly pushed Victor away, jumped off the table and ran from the room Apollo following shortly after. Victor sighed when he heard her door slam shut. He sat heavily in one of the chairs and ran a hand over his face, James righted the chair Cora had knocked over and sat down across from him. "That didn't go well at all, huh?" Pan and Rasta came from beneath the table and crawled into the brother's laps offering what comfort they could.

."Did you honestly expect any different?" James asked with a note of exasperation in his voice.

"No. I just wish she understood. She should have handled this better. Do- do you think we've been too soft on her?"

James gave his brother an incredulous look. "No. We gave her exactly what she needed. And probably what we needed too. We gave her a family."

Victor sighed and ran his claws through Rasta's long fur, earning him a purr. "And now she feels like it's all being torn out from under her, right?"

James gave him a look that clearly stated 'what do you think bub' and ran a hand through his hair. "I'll go write that letter." Victor sighed and nodded.

* * *

**TBC…**

**A/N:** It all starts in the next chapter. Cora gets sent off to China and Vic & Jimmy go off to fight in 'Nam. The next chapter or two will be jumping through the years she spends with the twins and touching in with the brothers briefly for important scenes that happen in the movie.

 


	8. Temples, Foxes, and Circus folk

_**-One Month Later-** _

Pan, Rasta and Apollo were all stowed away as cargo in the ships hold. Cora stood on the docks with Victor and James, she stared up at the huge ship and clenched her fingers tighter into Victors coat feeling very much like a small frightened animal. She turned and wrapped her arms around his middle. "Please, please don't make me go." She pleaded into his shirt, she felt him sigh and then his hand in her hair.

"We're not doin' this again cub." Victors voice was firm and and left no room for any arguments.  

Cora let out a shuddering breath and hugged him tighter."I love you Vic, take care of Jimmy and don't you dare die. I'm gonna come find you both I promise."She released him and looked up at him with watery eyes before moving on to James.

She tugged the younger of the two men down to her level and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Be careful. I love you and if you die I'll never forgive you." She kissed his cheek and let him go.

Victor handed Cora her travel papers and the twins' letter with directions on how to get to the temple from the port in China. She gave them both a watery smile and walked up the gang plank onto the ship as the whistle blew.

* * *

 

Cora stood in front of the ancient looking temple with an incredulous look painted across her face. Apollo nudged her hand _'It looks abandoned...'_

She nodded and Pan pawed her leg _'Do you want me to go look master?'_ Cora nodded and picked up Rasta to cuddle out of nervousness and the cold. Pan scaled the wall and perched at the top, _'it doesn't look as bad on the inside master we should go and look for the mutants your meant to see.'_

"Alright." Apollo picked up one of her bags and she picked up the other.She let Rasta hop to the ground and followed the cats into the seemingly decrepit temple.

A few minutes after they entered, they were met by a beautiful young woman. She had long straight black hair, pale green eyes, and was altogether very elfin in appearance, yet clearly Asian at the same time; she was dressed in a jade green and white cheongsam. She smiled at them and spoke softly, in heavily accented English. "Hello young one, my name is Mei Lin. My brother and I have been expecting you and your lovely companions. Please, follow me and we will get you properly clothed for dinner, yes?"

Cora nodded nervously and followed after Mei Lin. She was led deeper into the temple where things seemed to be better preserved. As they went they passed two fully intact court yards and a multitude of empty rooms when they finally came to a halt outside of a paper doored room Mei Lin turned back and smiled at Cora. "This will be your room, mine is just three down to the right and my brothers across from it. Please change into something in the closet, Foreigners are not looked kindly upon in these parts and it would be best for you to try to blend in for the time being. I will be back to retrieve you for dinner. You will meet our other guests and my brother then, please try to settle in."

Cora nodded again and entered her room along with her animals. She slid the door shut and leaned lightly against it. She looked down at her cats and dog, "Well what do you think?"

Apollo growled, _'I will stay with you at all times.'_

Pan nodded his head lightly in agreement with the dogs statement and rubbed against Apollo's front leg as he passed him. _'Rasta and I will scout out the land and other "visitors" tonight.'_ He purred out as he came to sit at Cora's feet, she nodded and bent to scratch his ears.

When she straightened again she moved to the screen door next to the bed mats. She slid it open and set her bags down inside, there was an assortment of Chinese clothing, mostly short and long cheongsams, but also a few winter cloaks and Chinese style pajamas. She sighed softly feeling a little unbalanced by all the sudden changes. Apollo pressed his nose against the back of her leg in a comforting manner. She scratched behind his cropped ears and smiled down at him. "Well time to get dressed, huh?" She sifted through the dresses and smiled at the soft feel of the materials, she pulled out a short pale pink one it had an open neck and a light flowered pattern. She sighed and stripped out of her traveling clothes. She pulled it on over her head did up the clasps in the front.

She looked at herself in the full length mirror on the opposite wall. "So I'm not supposed to look like a foreigner huh? Rasta will you get my white flats from my bag?"

Rasta meowed and went to her bag while she started to tie her hair into a messy bun.

Cora had just slipped on her shoes when there was a knock at her door. She slid it open and was met by Mei Lin.The Asian woman nodded at her in approval. "You look very nice Miss Black."

Cora smiled, "Thank you Mei Lin. Rasta and Pan will hunt for themselves but Apollo has decided that he will be accompanying me. I've found it best not to argue with him."

"Of course little Huli jing."

Cora gave her a confused look. "What does that mean?"

"It means fox or fox spirit. You have the spirit of a fox, did you not know? I am very in tune with nature; you carry many traits of one who is touched by a Huli Jing."

"So you're saying that you think my inner animal is a fox?" Mei Lin nodded with a smile and Cora couldn't help but smile back.

* * *

Mei Lin led Cora and Apollo into the dining room. There was a long low sitting table with floor mats surrounding it; half of them were full with strange people who looked greatly out of place in the traditional Chinese clothing they were wearing. They stared as the women and dog entered the man sitting at the head of the table stood. He looked very much like Mei Lin only in a masculine manner. He was tall and lithe, built for speed and precision, he had a very elfin look about his face, long braided black hair and bright golden eyes.

He spoke in the same accented English as Mei Lin "Welcome Miss Black, My name is Tai Yang. You have met my sister, these are our other guests." He motioned to a tall well-built black man sitting to his left "this is Blaise Laurent; he is the ring leader of the traveling circus that is currently staying with us. They usually stop by around this time every year."

The dark skinned man stood and made to come shake her hand but stopped short when a menacing growl tore from Apollo's throat. Cora simply bowed her head lightly in greeting and laid a hand on the dog's head. The other circus performers shared low chuckles at their ring-leaders expense. "Please join us." Tai Yang motioned them forward they sat at the table with the others. Cora sat across from an emaciated-ly thin girl who had long platinum blond hair and what looked like iridescent green scales where her eyebrows should be, along her high cheek bones and extending down her long neck to disappear into her pretty emerald colored Cheongsam.

Cora cocked her head to the side when the girl turned her head to look at her, she had slitted amber eyes. The girl narrowed said eyes and stuck out her forked tongue. Cora narrowed her eyes back and barred her fangs in an annoyed hiss as she fell back on instinct; this caused the others at the table to break out in boisterous laughter. "Ahh, Miss Black I see you've acquainted yourself with Britta, or as we call her SilverTongue." Laurent said in French accented English.

Britta gave Cora a 'Holier than thou' look and went back to her food. "Why do you call her that?" Cora asked not sure how to feel about the people she was currently surrounded by.

"We all have special names Miss Black." He flicked his fingers at his tea cup and it lifted into the air before settling into his outstretched hand.

Cora Just stared in surprise at the show of powers. "All of you…"

"Yes all of us little Feral. Do you have a name?"

Cora thought for a moment before looking at Mei Lin with a smile "Vixen." She looked back at Laurent, "My other name is Vixen."

* * *

**TBC…**

**A/N:** And so we begin Cora's time at the temple. The next chapter will be the start of her training with Tai Yang. She will also be learning Culture, Language and mythology from Mei Lin. Along with Any other things she might decide to learn from the local mutant circus troop. Tune in Next chappie~

 


	9. Training and Bright Moon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own the Kyusho explanations.

Tai Yang stared at the little mutant sitting on the floor in his study. "Victor and James are very old friends of mine and my sister, to say I was shocked by James' letter would be an understatement. I have never taken a student and I honestly never intended to." Cora looked down and her shoulders dropped. "But, I owe Victor a favor and he asked this of me so it shall be done." Cora looked back up so quickly she would have gotten whiplash if not for her healing factor. "I will be teaching you Kyusho," Cora sat back into a more comfortable position as she noticed the beginnings of a lecture. "Most martial art systems have pressure point applications to an extent. The learning begins with the revival and restoration aspects of the art and then moves into the martial aspect. Pressure point fighting enables you to subdue a larger, stronger attacker quickly by attacking their nervous system and other vital points of the body."

Tai Yang looked down at Cora only to find her wide eyed and listening with rapt attention. He felt a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth and turned away, "You will be studying the human body and its nervous system with Mei Lin every day after breakfast. By studying these systems you can take any of the techniques and kata you learn and make them incredibly effective, easy to apply and devastating for anyone and everyone. You will begin to learn how to interpret each and every move and discover there is absolutely No Wasted Movements. Each and every move has incredible power and significant meaning… even the formal beginnings. You will train with me after lunch and until dinner. I will not begin to teach you how to use your Katas in a real-world situation until you have a thorough grasp on my sister's teachings."

He turned back and made eye contact with Cora. "This will not be easy or particularly enjoyable, but you will learn and you will master all I have to teach you before you are permitted to leave this temple in search of your pack. Do you understand?"

Cora nodded and gave Tai Yang a determined grin. "Yes, sir!"

* * *

 

_**-9 months later-** _

Cora stared up at the blue cloudy sky panting lightly as she waited for the feeling to come back to her arms. Tai Yang stared down at her with a mildly amused expression on his normally stoic face.

Laurent was applauding from the sidelines. "You lasted 15 minutes longer than usual Vixen. You're getting better."

Cora snarled and forced herself up, "Not quickly enough, my body's weak and what am I supposed to do if I get caught. We all know it'll happen eventually. Everything I do relies on speed and I'm just not fast enough. The techniques I'm learning won't do a thing for me if I'm restrained, none of my abilities will."

Laurent nodded at this and exchanged a look with Tai Yang who simply raised an eyebrow and left the court yard to find his sister. "I will teach you to be an escapist Little Fox it will take a long time and will be very painful. The circus will be leaving for its traveling season in a few months, what I can't teach you between now and then will have to wait until next year."

Cora was shocked. "Tai Yang is okay with this?" Laurent smirked lightly at her, "Your training with him will continue, Along with your anatomy, biology, and any other lessons you may be taking with Mei Lin. Knowledge of the human body will be your greatest weapon Vixen. With your training you will know yourself and your enemy on the most base level." Cora's mismatched eyes widened and she nodded in an almost hesitant manner. It was going to be a very busy few months.

* * *

"Cora! Are you listening?" Mei Lin gave the tiny Feral a disapproving glare as she was startled out of her day dream.

"I'm Sorry Mei I just can't seem to focus today; I even got the tar beat out of me in my spar with Tai Yang more quickly than normal."

The Asian woman sighed in exasperation and pet Cora's long messy hair, "Pull your head from the clouds Huli Jing," Mei Lin's soft smile took on a sadistic gleam "and recite to me the major joints of the human body."Cora let out a deep groan and began her recitation only stumbling over and missing a few. Mei Lin gave her a pleased nod at her progress and dismissed her to start her study with Laurent.

The tiny feral stepped out of Mei Lin's room's with a heavy sigh they'd been going at this pace with her lessons for weeks now, her head felt like it would explode with everything she'd shoved into it recently. She needed a break and she wasn't gonna get one by asking. She walked to her room and closed the door silently behind her. She pulled a winter cloak from the closet and turned to her companions. They were sprawled lazily among her blankets, "I'm going out do any of you want to come?"

Rasta flopped over to look at her right side up, the other two just burrowed deeper into the blankets; she'd expected this seeing as Rasta was really the only one built for the cold weather. When she turned to leave the Maine Coon stood and followed her out the door and through the abandoned parts of the temple. _'Is this a good idea Vixen?'_ The cat gave her a worried look and she smiled at the use of her chosen name. It was the only thing she'd managed to get her familiars to call her aside from Master.

She liked it better it sounded less cold. "I honestly don't care at the moment I need to clear my head and I can't do that with three back breaking teachers breathing down my neck." She sighed and slipped through the cracked wall at the front of the temple. "Besides we won't be long I just need some air and a little freedom."

Rasta nodded and followed his master through the light covering of snow, off the worn path and into the sparse woods surrounding the temple. It had only been a few minutes when something moving in the snow caught Rasta's attention. He cautiously crept towards it and leapt away when it hissed menacingly at him. Cora gasped when she saw the tiny red eyes glaring weakly up at them from the snow. It was a snake, a tiny white snake with bright red eyes; it was young and definitely shouldn't have been away from the rest of its clutch yet. It shouldn't even be awake, wild snakes were meant to hibernate in the winter.

Cora dropped to her knees in the snow just outside of the tiny snakes range. "what are you doing out here in the cold hatchling?" The tiny snake looked at her in exhausted surprise.

 _'I w-wass pushed from the nest, I wass d-different from the other hatchlingsss. It made mother angry.'_ Cora glared into the snow, the mother snake for abandoning her young just because she was different hit a bit too close to home for Cora's liking. The little snake would die soon, it had been in the cold for too long and she knew its tiny body was probably shutting down.

The thought of letting the little snake die made fury burn through her. She wanted to save her like she had Pan, Rasta, and Apollo. She would save her. "Let me help you hatchling, I will take care of you, keep you warm and safe. I will be your mother little one."

The snake tried to rear back and hiss but her tiny body was too weak. _'Why?'_

Cora gave a sad smile. "Because I was like you once."

The albino cobra sat up and weakly spread her hood giving the girl a small nod. _'What do you need of me new Mother?'_

Cora nearly laughed, "Just mother is fine or Vixen if you'd prefer. But all you need to do is drink my blood little one and stay with me."

The little snake bowed her head in acceptance and Cora bit her thumb drawing blood. She offered it to the tiny snake who drew the blood into her mouth carefully so as not to injure her new mother. Her tiny eyes glowed scarlet before fading back to a dark garnet red and Cora scooped her out of the snow without hesitation.

The feral gently raised the hatchling to eye level and she hissed. _'Are you going to name me, mother?'_

Cora blinked and gazed at the little snake "How about Ming Yue? It means bright moon. Yue for short?"

Ming Yue hissed her happiness and coiled around her mother's hand _'yesss!'_

Cora smiled and gently plopped the coiled hatchling into an inner pocket of her cloak. "Stay put Yue we need to go home so you can meet the others and I need to return to my lessons." The little snake didn't completely understand but hissed an affirmative anyway. "Come on Rasta. I'll need you to look after her while I'm in lessons." Rasta gave her an annoyed huffy look but nodded and followed along as they made their way back.

* * *

 

"Come on Laurent! I'm sorry, I just needed a break!" The black French-man didn't make eye contact and huffed at her. He'd stopped their lessons since her impromptu disappearing act four days ago and Cora was still trying to convince him that she really was serious about his teachings. "Please Laurent!"

He finally looked down and gave an almost animal like growl when he made eye contact with mismatched puppy eyes. "Fine Vixen, but no more disappearing acts, it's not part of the curriculum." He smirked at the end at his attempted pun and Cora groaned.

"Only if you never attempt circus puns in my presence again." Cora promised.

"Deal, now sit in that chair and close your eyes. I'm going to tie you to it, first with ropes, then with chains. I will not let you out you must use what I've taught you to escape both times. If you manage this today, tomorrow we'll move onto and hand-cuffs and zip-ties." Cora nodded and relaxed into the chair.

* * *

**TBC…**

**A/N:** Okay so this chapter touched on all of her training and she has found her last familiar, Now Yue won't stay a baby she will mature to full grown and then stay at her peak just like the others. The next few chapters will probably be another series of time jumps spanning through the fifties and early sixties. And I'm probably going to make Kurt/Nightcrawler age a little differently which really isn't so farfetched considering Mystique is his mother and she ages differently (Watch X-men First Class). Anyway, he will be joining soon as well.

 

 


	10. New Pack Mates and Training continued…

 

 

**_-1956-_ **

Cora lay out in a grassy area of the courtyard her Familiars sprawled around her and Yue coiled on her stomach. It'd been a year, almost exactly. Her lessons with Mei Lin had continued and she still studied anatomy but she'd begun on culture and language as well. Her lessons with Tai Yang were progressing nicely and she'd started to implement what she learned into her own style. At least a little, he said she was still too sloppy.

Laurent and his troop left almost exactly two months after he'd started training her. He'd left her with instructions to continue her study of the human body and the knowledge of how to escape hand-cuffs, chains, and ropes. She continued practicing everything she'd learned and was looking forward to the circuses return this season.

They were actually due back any day now… Speak of the devil, Apollo raised his head and his cropped ears twitched at the sounds only he and probably the cats, could hear. Cora turned her head to the dog "what is it?"

 _'I believe the strange-ones have returned Vixen…'_ Cora sat up dislodging Yue who hissed in annoyance at being displaced from her warm spot.

"Sorry Yue…" She scooped up the adolescent snake, bringing her to her neck so she could coil there like a necklace. "Come on guys lets go see!"

* * *

 

 

It had been the circus and mere days after their arrival Cora and Laurent had jumped right back into her training. This time, she was learning how to escape from a strait-jacket. She was very hesitant about this at first having more than a few bad experiences involving strait-jackets, Laurent assured her numerous times that she had nothing to worry about and finally she agreed. "You have to focus through your fear, Vixen." Cora Snarled in a very feral manner through her cloth gag as she fought against the strait-jacket and encroaching memories…

_**FLASH** such a pretty little monster…_

_**FLASH** …You stupid demon bitch! Learn your place! _

_**FLASH** Not so tough when you can't fight back are you? Hahahah… _

_**FLASH** Cora snarled again and forced the memories aside._

Focus. It took Cora nearly a full month to manage the strait-jacket escape.

* * *

 

 

 

**_-1957-_ **

"Tai Yang?"

The tall man looked up from his book as Cora stopped her Katas to get his attention.  **"Shì?"**

Cora pulled a hand through her dark bangs and bit her bottom lip in contemplation"I've been thinking… Do you think I could use my electrical pulses to enhance the damage of my hits?"

Tai Yang looked completely intrigued at the thought. "Why haven't you brought this up before Huli Jing? You could perfect our own style of Kyusho; with electrical pulses being forced into pressure points, it could increase the damage tenfold!"

Cora's eyes widened. "But I'm not even sure if it would work!"

"Of course it would you just have to master the flow of the electricity and learn to direct it to your hands and fingertips, then to release it sparingly when needed. It will probably take a lot of meditation but I'm sure you'll manage it if you decide to seriously pursue it."

The feral thought about it for a time and blinked when she realized he was right, she could already direct it through her teeth, so why not her palms and fingertips. It was definitely something worth working on.

* * *

 

**_-1958-_ **

"Cora come here." Tai Yang called to forever young feral from his office room. She entered a few minutes later. "I have a gift for you. Your style and dedication are fantastic Cora, But your speed is still extremely lacking. I want you to wear these at all times. They are not to be taken off for any reason unless I order you to, until you leave the temple. You may choose to continue to wear them then if you so choose."

He opened a wooden box and slid it across his desk to Cora. Inside was a set of weights, a pair for her wrists that weighed ten pounds each, a pair for her ankles that weighed in at twenty each; one that was to be worn as a belt at thirty-five and one that was styled to look like a choker at five. Cora gave Tai Yang a shocked look, "That's seventy extra pounds I'll barely be able to move!"

"You will wear them at all times and we will continue on with our normal schedule. Doing this will gradually increase you stamina and speed." Cora let out a low moan but nodded and began to attach the weights to their appropriate places.

* * *

_**-1960-** _

It was getting close to the circuses off season again, Laurent had sent a letter ahead and it had arrived just a few days ago. He'd said he had a special surprise that he hoped Cora would be willing to help him with. Cora grinned from atop the temples outer wall. They were going to come today. She could feel it. Yue hissed at her mother from the feral's neck, _'why must we wait in the cold mother?'_

The young looking mutant smiled and stroked the serpents head. Was she really 32, she didn't feel that old or look it; she hadn't aged a day since her 19th birthday. Her violet and black, cheongsam fluttered in the cold breeze that Yue had complained about not moments before. Her black fingerless leather gloves scraped across aged stone as she shifted her weight to make room for Pan, as he leapt to join her. _'I hear them Vixen. They should be within sight soon.'_ Pan's ears twitched and he turned to blink large amber eyes at his Master.

Cora smiled down at him and scratched his ears in a loving manner. "Thank you Pan." They waited in relative silence for the caravan to come into sight, when it did she leapt from the wall and ran to inform Tai Yang and Mei Lin.

_**-30 minutes later-** _

Cora grinned at Laurent as he came out of the crowd of performers. Tai Yang smiled and shook hands with Laurent as he approached "Welcome back."

Laurent smiled at the Twins then at Cora. "I have a surprise Vixen."

Cora bounced in place in excitement and Laurent walked back to one of the carts. There he picked up a small cloaked bundle and walked back to Cora, he held it out and Cora took it. She looked confused until a small blue spaded tail wiggled free. She gasped and pulled the hood back and nearly cooed at the blue child in her arms. He had large yellow eyes, short black hair, pointed ears and fangs. He couldn't be more than six.

He looked up at Cora and let out a small whimper of fear and shivered. She smiled at him to show her fangs, the shivering stopped and he looked at her curiously. **"You are like me?"**

Cora smiled again when she recognized that he was speaking German. **"Ja, Little one."**

The little blue mutant grinned showing his fangs and crawled out of her arms and onto her back, his blue tail waving in the air from under his cloak, **"What is your name little one?"**

 **"Kurt."** He smiled and tugged at Cora's long black hair with tiny, three fingered, clawed hands.

 **"My name is Cora, or Vixen."** Laurent smiled at their interaction.

"We've been calling him Nightcrawler. He's a teleporter."

Cora looked confused. "He said his name's Kurt. None of you speak German?" Laurent gave her a sheepish grin "Not fluently."

(A/N: they hadnt traveled through Germany since the cold war)

 

* * *

 

_**-1962-** _

"I have to go!" Tai Yang gave the feral an appraising look then turned away. Kurt just held onto the bottom of her dress looking up at his sister figure in a confused manner. "Do as you wish. I have nothing left to teach you."

Cora's eyes widened at Tai Yang. She put a hand on the eight year old blue mutant's head, his yellow eyes never straying as he watched her curiously. She finally looked away from her mentor and down at Kurt. **"You have to stay here."**

He shook his head violently. **"Nien!"**

Cora sighed and looked at Laurent. "You could take him."

"Take a child into an active war zone?" She gave him and incredulous look and he sighed.

"He could teleport away..."

"No, I will not put him in that kind of danger." She knelt down and hugged the blue mutant gently. "I love you little one." And she sent a mild shock into a pressure point on his shoulder causing him to crumple in her arms.

She stood up and handed him to Laurent along with a closed letter. "Give him that for me, He can come find me when he's older but right now it's just not safe, he can teleport to me on instinct because he knows my scent and the feel of my mutation. He will always be pack and always be welcome." Laurent nodded and bowed his head in an almost sad manner.

She turned to Mei Lin and smiled. **"Thank you for everything Mei."**

She spoke in perfect Chinese and Mei Lin smiled **"You're Welcome Huli Jing."**

* * *

 

**TBC…**

**A/N:** yay! Next chapter is For sure when she meets back up with at least one of the brothers. Ehehe read and find out what happens, love you all!

 


	11. Broken pack, broken promises

_'Animal speak'_

"Human speak"

**"Other languages"**

Chapter 10: Broken pack, broken promises

With Victor and James

The cell was dim and smelled of dried blood and dust. Victor stroked the rat on his arm in an almost loving manner as the door slid open bathing the brothers in light. “My name is Major William Stryker. You were charged with killing a senior officer, is that correct?”

“Apparently we have some issues with authority.”

James scowled at Victor “Keep a lid on it.”

“Sir.” Victor gave Stryker a sarcastic grin.

“The warden tells me your sentence was carried out by a firing squad at ten hundred hours, How’d that go?”

James Gave the man a sideways glance “It tickled.”

Striker smiled and took off his aviators “You boys tired of running? Tired of denying your… true nature?” Victor and James looked up at this.

Victor felt a growl starting in his chest. “What d’you care?!”

Stryker grinned thinking he’d struck the right nerve. “Oh I care, I care because I know how special you are. How valuable.” James turned away with the beginnings of a sneer on his face. “Look, you can stay here locked up like freaks of nature, or you can join me.” Victor narrowed his eyes; his mind momentarily flashing to his cub before Striker stared talking again. “I’m putting together a special team with special privileges. Now tell me, how would you like to really serve your country.”  

PAGE BREAK

With Cora

Cora stood in the shadowy remains of a battle field Apollo at her side, Pan scouting the land ahead and Rasta the land behind. _‘D’you smell them?’_

 _‘Yes But its old, at least a week but the definitely spilled blood here their own and others.’_ Apollo replied. Cora let out a frustrated sigh and stroked Yue’s head. Pan let out a yowl from up ahead.

_‘There is a village up ahead Vixen.’_

_‘Thank you Pan.’_ They walked to the village in relative silence, it was mostly abandoned. Cora wandered around and occasionally looked inside the buildings and houses. She stopped in front of one; it had a trio of slashes across the outer wall Cora ran her fingers along them and smiled _._

_‘They came through here.’_

There was a military base a few miles away and Apollo tried to lead them directly into the stockade yard. He growled deep in his chest, _‘their blood is all over this place.’_

Cora growled as well. _‘We’ll wait until nightfall then we’ll go check it out. We’ll sneak into the file room and see if we can find out why their execution/prisoner yard smells like our packmates.’_ Apollo nodded and they slunk back into the forest.

PAGE BREAK

Cora sifted through the paper files, “No, no, no, Ooh Bingo.” She flipped through the recent files on executions. “Killed a senior officer and accomplice/resisted arrest/assault of fellow officers… that sounds like Victor. Sentence carried out by a Firing squad.” Cora growled and left the office in search of the head officer.

She found his room and snuck in locking the door behind her. She hopped on top of the bed and rapidly struck a series of pressure points in the man’s torso, arms and legs. The feral crouched over the now temporarily paralyzed man and slapped his face to wake him up. “Wakey, wakey.” She cooed in his face.

The General’s eyes snapped open and his face reddened when he realized he couldn’t move. “What have you done, who are you?!”

Cora smirked, showing off her fangs. “Don’t worry sweetie it’s not permanent but you won’t be going anywhere for a while. Don’t bother calling for help, I’d kill you and be gone well before anyone got here. Now I just want some information.”

The General grimaced and gave the tiny girl a dirty look. “What?”

“I just want to know what happened to Victor Creed and his brother James Howlett.”

The man’s face purpled in anger, “They’re dead, executed by firing squad.” Cora snarled and jerked the man up by his collar.

“I think we both know that that’s bullshit, Sir. So why don’t we try a little bit of the truth, before I decide it would just be easier to fry your nervous system.” She snapped her teeth and let off sparks.

The Generals eyes widened. “You’re just like them aren’t you, you’re a freak too!”

Cora’s face paled out and her expression blanked. “Where are they?” She whispered.

“None of your damn business, you crazy monster now let me go!”

Cora snarled and shook him “Considering your situation, I don’t think you’re in any position to be making demands! Now tell me where my family is and maybe I won’t rip your throat out!”

The general paled. “They were supposed to be executed but they d-didn’t die so we locked them up. Then some man, he was a Major. Stryker, I think. He said he was going to be taking them off our hands, some kind of special task force. They’re first mission was supposed to be in Nigeria! That’s all I know, I swear.”

Cora gave him a cold look “well then I guess that means you’ve out grown your usefulness.”

“Wha-” His question was cut off in a gurgle as she locked her fangs into his throat and pulled back taking his jugular and vocal cords with her leaving her face and dress a bloody mess.

“Aww, you ruined my dress.” She scowled at the twitching body and kicked it as she stood to leave. “I’m not a freak, and you’re the monster.” She turned and left, going back to the forest to meet up with her familiars.

PAGE BREAK

With Victor and James

“Victor!” James ran and grabbed his brother’s wrist stopping him from killing a teenaged boy. “Don’t even think about it, we didn’t sign up for this. Put him down”

Victor’s usual smirk started to drop and he released the boy. “What’re you doin? We’ve finally got a good thing goin’ here don’t you dare screw this up!”

James gave his brother a tired but angry look. “No Victor no its enough, we’ve done enough. We have a pack remember. That was a good thing. She’s waiting, remember?” Victor looked guilty for a moment then then it was covered by anger again.

“Who d’you think you are?! This is what we do! Maybe you’d rather be rotting in a hole somewhere until they figure out how to do it to us. Remember what they did to her?!”

James expression hardened and he looked Victor dead in the eyes, “I’m done. You comin’?”

Victor looked surprised and didn’t answer, James turned and walked away. “Jimmy! We can’t just let you walk away.”

James’ face darkened and he pulled his dog-tags from his neck and threw them on the ground. “Jimmy! Jimmy!” Victor shouted angrily after his brother, but was ultimately ignored as James stalked off into the tree-line.

PAGE BREAK

Three days later

Victor Scowled at his team mates around the fire. His fingers clenching around his brothers Dog-tags in agitation, he felt restless. It was wrong to be separated from his pack and he was feeling the separation anxiety kicking in. he should go after his brother. No, Jimmy left him, his cub then? Victor got to his feet and began to pace, this put the others on edge and they watched him warily.

The wind changed and his head snapped up. He knew that scent! He looked into the underbrush and saw two sets of glowing golden eyes staring back. “Pan? Rast-” He was cut off as a blurred figure launched itself from a tree; he barely managed to catch it and was still knocked to the ground from impact.

Everyone around the fire jumped to their feet and drew various weapons. Only to see Victor pinned to the ground by what appeared to be a small girl dressed in a traditional Chinese dress and she was … Cuddling him.

“Cub?!” Victor sounded shocked and the rest of the group looked it.

“CUB?!” was the resounding response from the other mutants and human. But they were ignored.

“I came to find you. You took too long and I got bored.” The girl gave him a fanged grin, again shocking the other mutants. A moment later two large cats and an enormous dog came out of the trees. Zero trained his gun on them pulling a growl from the dog and a snarl from the girl “Point that gun at my babies again and I’ll paralyze you from the neck down before you even pull the trigger.” Zero looked at the girl and met her mismatched glare.

He didn’t know what she was capable of and he didn’t want to chance it, especially if she wasn’t bluffing. He lowered his gun. The little feral grinned and turned her attention back to Victor. “Where’s Jimmy?”

Victor adopted a guilty look, which surprised the others. He opened his hand and held out the dog-tags to the girl who took them with a curious look. “Cora, Cub, he- Jimmy left…” The girl, Cora, just stared at her alpha for a good long moment before the fury consumed her blank expression.

She smacked him. Hard and his head snapped to the side. Everyone waited for the rage. But it never came. “How could you?! You promised! You promised you’d take care of each other while I was gone. How could you just let him leave?! He’s your brother, he’s Pack! You never abandon pack! You taught me that! You’re the alpha you should have made him stay or you should have gone with him!” Cora was yelling now and crying too. She couldn’t lose another family.

Victor nearly panicked when he saw his Cub crying, James was the one who always fixed this problem. So he did the only thing he could think of, He scooped her up, hugged her and let her smack him until she felt better.

When she calmed down she gave Victor a cold stare. “We’re going after him. I’m not losing my family because of your and James stubborn pride.”

“I’m afraid that’s not your call young lady. Victor is one of my men and is under my command.” Cora looked at the speaker and let out a hiss and turned to glare at Victor “You’re taking orders from a human! We are no one’s pets Victor, why would you let him order you around like a trained animal?!”

Victor’s eyes widened a fraction when he realized she was right. He let out a low growl but made no move to stop her when she stepped up to Stryker. “I’d like to see you try to stop us from leaving, Human.” A hiss sounded from the girl’s neck drawing everyone’s attention to the white red eyed cobra coiled there.

 _‘Do you want me to bite him mother?’_ the snake hissed again. What really surprised them was when the girl hissed back.

 _‘No, Yue, not this time.’_ The snake gave Stryker one last look before settling back around the little feral’s neck.

“As I was saying, we’re leaving.” Victor came up behind her and Stryker reached out to grab the brazen girl. His hand was caught in a steel grip by Victor, who snarled, “Don’t you ever try to lay a hand on my cub!” He flung Stryker away and into a tree, distracting the other mutants. The feral’s and animals left the clearing without a further word.

PAGE BREAK

**TBC…**

**A/N:** _TADAA! Done! Okay so I hope you all understand Pack Dynamics by now Victor is the Alpha which makes him the Leader and protector. He’s almost obsessively protective of Cora and Jimmy(not nearly as much as he can defend himself and fight, He still sees Cora as a frightened unsure fifteen year old). Cora lashing out at him like that would not normally be acceptable but he already felt like he’d screwed up and felt it was at least partially deserved because as Alpha it is his duty to keep the pack together. Normally it would have been James who would have handled her during her emotional out-burst but as he is not around Victor had to step up so she didn’t hurt herself or someone else, which is not really something he’s comfortable with or very good at. Cora was not really ordering him around either just stating something that they both already knew was going to happen, which is why he didn’t fight her on it. Anyway they are going after James but will probably not confront him right away._


	12. Tracking Jimmy

A twist in the story

** Disclaimer  ** I do not own x-men or any of the movies/plots/dialog/comics just my own twists on them.

_'Animal speak'_

"Human speak"

**"Other languages"**

_/memories/_

Chapter 11: Tracking Jimmy

Six years later with James

James stretched and let out a jaw cracking yawn as he stepped out of the open French doors of his cabin. The mountain air was fresh and clear and he inhaled deeply. He stared out at the rocky landscape and tried to fight down the aching need for his pack, He nearly jumped when he heard a deep meow behind him he turned and looked up to his roof to see a large Maine coon cat balanced on a heavy wooden beam. Golden eyes glared down at him in a disapproving manner. “Rasta?”

The cat blinked and hopped from its perch, it purred as it weaved around the feral’s legs. James stooped and scooped the familiar cat into his arms. He could barely contain the relief he felt at seeing a part of his pack he scratched the cat’s ears and smiled as he felt him purr.

Then the guilt hit him. He’d thought about it before, he’d left Cora too, not just his brother, and now here he was petting her cat… in Canada… without her. The guilt ate at him and a grimace took residence on his face. He could practically see her look of utter betrayal in his head.

“Logan?” The feral looked up to see the pretty brunette exit the open doors and step towards him clad only in one of his flannel shirts. “Why are you up so early?” He half turned Rasta still in his arms and extended a hand. He forced the guilt back and smiled at her.

He felt Rasta stiffen in his arms as she came closer. “Oh, what a sweet cat!” She smiled at him, then the cat and reached out a hand to pet him. She was given a loud hiss and a clawed hand in return. James dropped him in surprise; Kayla held her hand and her eyes watered at the pain, she glared wordlessly at the cat. James didn’t notice, he watched Rasta jump away, shock still the prominent emotion on his face. Rasta turned to glare at him again before it turned sad and James instantly knew why. The cat thought he’d found a new pack. James took a step towards Rasta but stopped when Kayla called out to him.

“Logan!” He turned to look at her. “Come back inside, please?” the feral looked back over his shoulder but the familiar cat was gone. He sighed and walked back to Kayla concern finally popping up over the scratch; he led her back into the house and closed the doors behind them.

\---

With Cora and Victor

_‘A what?!’_ Cora hissed as Rasta relayed the morning to her. At first she had been ecstatically happy that they’d found him, now she wasn’t sure.

 _‘A female, Vixen, his scent was all over her. She tried to pet me and I scratched her. He didn’t seem all too concerned at first though, more interested in me. He smelled guilty and anxious, he almost followed me but the female called him after him and he went back.’_ Rasta watched as she repeated his report to Victor. Vixen was practically seething in anger, along with something else bubbling just beneath the surface. Victor laid a hand on her head, and the anger melted away.

She sniffed and pressed her forehead into his chest. “D-do you think he found his mate?”

Victor practically gaped at her. Luckily she didn’t notice and he quickly composed himself. His cub and brother were unbelievably dense at times he had seen it in them hundreds of times and they couldn’t. His brother was practically built for Cora and Cora instinctively knew just how Jimmy worked. After the initial trust issues they’d clicked together like matching puzzle pieces.

Victor sighed and squeezed the back of Cora’s neck in a comforting manner. “No, Cub I don’t think they’re mates.” She looked up at him and sniffed again nodding and pulling away.

“What do we do now?” Cora asked as she fingered the dog-tags around her neck.

“We wait and watch and if we get the opportunity we go in and try to reason with him.”

Cora nodded and sat down on the rug with Apollo, Pan, and Yue. The cat was curled up between the dog’s front paws and the snake was coiled on Apollo’s flank. Cora leaned back against her dog and picked up her abandoned book.

Victor sighed and Rasta rubbed against his leg in comfort. He scooped the cat up and went to lie on the couch.

\---

(A/N: Clearly Victor doesn’t kill Bradley. So that scene shall be skipped he still dies though and who did it will be revealed later. Also for now James will still be referred to as James in narration. Other than this, things continue as normal in the movie so far.)

With Logan/James

James pulled the last plank through the machine and straightened, removing his cigar as the Jeep pulled up.

“Who the hell is this?” His work partner questioned. James didn’t respond, he already knew who it was and he had to bite back the snarl that made its way to his throat.

“Smells like government.” He finally spoke as he half turned to look at the two that climbed out of the Jeep. He Put his cigar back in his mouth and grabbed up his axe as he turned fully and walked towards them.

“My god, you haven’t aged a day.” Stryker said in a mock-friendly and surprised tone.

“Clean living.” James Returned.

“You remember agent Zero?” Stryker motioned to the Asian man by the other door.

James gave him a sarcastic look and lifted his cigar back towards his mouth. “Still shootin’ first askin‘ questions later?”

Zero put a bullet through the end of the cigar just as it made it to James’ mouth. “Still chewing on cheap cigars?”

James face darkened minutely and he spit the cigar out. “Boys, Please.” The feral turned back to Stryker. “I have a job for you.”

James Bit back a sarcastic laugh “I already have a job.”

Zero did laugh “Lumberjack? Eighteen grand a year?”

James looked at him “eighteen five. Plus I haven’t had to kill anybody in a while.”

“Starting to miss it?” Zero smirked.

“Right about now I am.” James said in a dark tone.

“Zero, back to the car.”

James smirked as Zero backed away. “Atta’ boy.” He clicked his tongue and Zero gave him a dirty look.

James looked back to Stryker. “I’m not proud about how things ended between us.” James face closed down as he felt the guilt creep up again.

“This conversations over.” The feral pushed past Stryker.

“Playing little house on the prairie with a school teacher, that just isn’t you.”

James turned at that. “And you would know, huh?”

Stryker looked him in the eyes “I would.”

“What do you want Stryker?”

“Bradley was killed, three days ago. Wade before him.” Stryker held out the newspaper obituary. “I believe somebody’s hunting down our old team.”

Cold washed over James and he looked up. “Anyone else?”

“As far as I know Victor is safe. But whoever it is has names, addresses…”

James gave him back the paper “I can take care of myself.”

Stryker became angry “This is not about you Logan.” James just ignored him and got in his car. Stryker looked in his window “Your country needs you!”

James put the car into gear. “I’m Canadian.” He pulled away without another word.

Stryker shouted after him angrily.

\---

James watch as Kayla walked out of the schoolhouse with a group of children and smiled. Mismatched green and purple eyes flashed briefly in his mind. He growled and shook his head roughly as if trying to dislodge the image. He looked back at Kayla who looked up and grinned at him he smiled back.

\---

“What’s wrong?” Kayla asked as she turned to look at the Feral.

James sighed “Stryker came by today,” He looked at the brunette briefly before turning his eyes back to the road. “Don’t worry I said no.”

Kayla shifted and looked back at the road as well, “Why is he bothering you after all these years?”

“’Cuz I’m the best there is at what I do and what I do best isn’t very nice.” He glanced briefly at Kayla then back at the road.

Kayla sighed “You’re not an animal Logan. What you have is a gift.” James’ mind flashed with memories

 _/He sniffed the air carefully trying to pick up Cora’s scent. She was getting better at hiding. He stepped forward and was tackled from behind. He rolled over and Cora grinned cheekily down at him fangs and all from her spot on his stomach. “I win.” He heard Victor give a howling laugh_ _and he growled in embarrassment./_

He certainly hadn’t thought it was a curse back then and he was an animal. He just didn’t want to be the pet monster that Stryker had tried to turn him and his brother into. He remained quiet and kept driving.

\---

“Why is the moon so lonely?

“Why?” James asked softly

“’Cuz she used to have a lover.” Kayla gave James a seductive look.

“Oh, you tell this to the kids?”

She gave him a mock-exasperated look “No.” he laughed “His name was Keukuatsheu and they lived in the Spirit World together.”

James smiled and took the offered beer from Kayla. “Oh, this is a true story.”

She smiled back “Mmm-hmm.”

He nodded. “All right.”

“And every night, they would wander the skies together.” She settled into his lap, “But, one of the other spirits was jealous.”

The feral grunted and took a sip of his beer. “Trickster wanted the moon for himself, so he told Keukuatsheu that the moon had asked for flowers. He told him to come to our world and pick her some wild roses. But Keukuatsheu didn't know that once you leave the Spirit World, you can never go back.”

James raised his eyebrows at her and waited for her to continue. “And every night, he looks up in the sky, and sees the moon, and howls her name. But...he can never touch her again.”

“Wow. Koo-koo-ka-choo got screwed.”

Kayla fought a smile. “Keukuatsheu.” James laughed and she did smile. “It means ‘the Wolverine.’“ She brushed her hands against his jaw and smiled softly.

\---

Kayla stopped as she spotted someone standing in the road ahead of her, she didn’t recognize him.

With James

James looked up from the tree he was working on something was wrong.

He smelled blood. He moved away from the other workers and saw the disembodied animal head. He glanced up and saw the familiar claw marks in the tree.

“Kayla!”

With Victor

The alpha glared at the woman in the car and walked towards her letting his nails drag over the car’s hood. He wasn’t going to hurt her he just wanted her scared. He wanted his brother to know he was upset with him and that he was here looking for him.

The woman watched him warily, realizing who or at least what she was dealing with. “Who are you?” She asked coldly.

Victor cocked his head and gave her a smirk. “Victor Creed.”

Kayla paled. “W-what do you want?”

“Get outa’ the car girly. Then we’ll talk.” Kayla conceded and stepped out closing the door and leaning against it. “I’m not here to kill you. At least I’m not as long as you don’t provoke me.”

The woman nodded hesitantly. “I just wanted to meet the reason that’s kept my brother from his Pack. We’ve been looking for him you know.” Kayla swallowed and raised her chin defiantly, meeting his eyes. Victor growled deep in his chest and fear flickered in the brunette’s eyes.

“He’s happy, you should leave him be.”

Victor raised an eyebrow and looked her over. “Is he now? Tell me have you ever lost a family member?” He saw pain flicker in her eyes and he smirked “Interesting. You’re so okay with us willingly abandoning ours. Would you do it?”

The feral watched as Kayla’s expression hardened and she finally dropped her eyes, she tried not to show any more of her thoughts on her face. Victor sneered turned away “See yah’ Girly.” With that he turned and left.

Kayla sighed and slumped against the car. She stayed there unmoving until she had gotten herself back under control, when she looked up she started again. Feet away stood Zero, She felt her heart drop. It was time.

With James

He saw the car. He ran to it looking inside, in his panic his instincts and senses came second to the obvious. There were claw marks on the hood.

James circled the car and ran into the woods panting. Panic still in charge of his bodies actions. “Kayla!” he froze when he saw the jeans and boots in the grass.

He dropped to his knees next to Kayla’s still body. And felt for a pulse with shaking hands. There was none. He lifted her body and howled in rage.

\---

Victor sat in the bar, bored. He hadn’t gone home to see his Cub after his confrontation with His brothers Bitch. He didn’t want to explain where he’d been. She’d get upset that he hadn’t taken her. Victor wanted to keep her a secret as much as he could. He felt like she was safer that way.

He scratched a smiley face on the counter and the bar tender glared. “You’re not from around here are yah?”

Victor looked up slowly and grinned showing fangs and making the man recoil slightly. He laughed. “What gave me away?”

The man sniffed and shrugged slightly but didn’t give a vocal answer. Victor looked up when he heard his name echo angrily. He looked at the bartender “You got insurance on this place?”

The bar tender looked nervous and let out a stuttered ‘no’. “Too Bad.” Victor looked away.

“Victor!”

The bar tender looked up at the door as the shouting came closer. Victor looked slowly over his shoulder as the doors slammed open. James stood panting and glaring at him and Victor felt mild confusion. Sure he probably scared the piss out of the girl but he hadn’t touched her or anything. Wasn’t he just a little _too_ pissed?

He shrugged it off and turned fully to face his little brother “Well, well, well look what the cat dragged in.”

Mister bar tender broke in _,_ “Guys whatever this is take it out side.”

James panted heavily and glared, his claws extending. Victor smirked. And people started fleeing the bar. “Why?”

“Why?” Victor repeated in an almost sarcastic manner and chuckled a little. “You don’t call, you don’t write, how else am I supposed to get your attention?” Victor let his claws lengthen and felt a snarl build in his throat.

The brothers ran at each other with feral noises leaving their throats and mouths. Victor dropped to all fours and launched himself in to James’ torso throwing them back through the now closed bar door. When they landed Victor jumped up and threw Jimmy into a pile of logs. James got up and ran at his brother swinging as he went. He missed and the next blows were traded quickly. Back and forth. Blood splattered their clothes but they didn’t stop, they knew they’d heal soon enough. This continued until James was flung into a piece of heavy machinery.

“I hate to say it Jimmy, but frankly I’m a little disappointed.” Victor frowned at his brother; the Bitch had made him soft. James shifted and moved to get up Victor growled in his throat and spoke in his alpha voice. “Stay Down.” James got up and gave his brother a look that literally radiated with his fury. Once again Victor wondered _why_ Jimmy was looking at him like he wanted to kill him, but now was not exactly a good time to ask.

James ran swinging again Victor grabbed his arm and turned them. Claws pierced flesh and both brothers growled in pain. James pulled back and plunged his claws back this time into Victor stomach and launched him onto a tall stack of logs, he landed in a crouch and James barreled towards him. Victor kicked the support and logs rained down on top of his brother. Effectively stopping his rage filled charge. Victor jumped down and dug him out, grabbed him and slammed him against the remaining logs. “Tell me something Jimmy. Was she worth it?”

Victor glared. His mind flashed to his cubs tear stained angry face when she found out Jimmy had left and he flung his brother in front of the oncoming Semi. Victor walked over to where His brother had landed. “When are you gonna figure it out. We’re not like them.”

James looked up at Victor “I’m nothing like you.” Was all he managed to rasp out.

“Sure you are you just don’t know it yet.” With that Victor turned and left his brother lying on the ground.

\---

**TBC…**

**A/N:** _Okay so he didn’t snap Logan’s claws. It just didn’t flow with how things were going. I tried to make the fight scene seem right I hope it worked … now most people would have asked Logan why he was irrationally pissed off but nooo, both brothers are hot headed and victor never turns down a fight of course. And I always hate it when people stop in the middle of a good fight and start having inane conversations. Don’t you? And yes Stryker tracked Victor and framed him for Kayla’s ‘Death’ it was not simply a coincidence and he didn’t actually kill the animal or leave the claw marks on the tree Zero planted them. Honestly I never really liked Kayla in the movie she just kinda pissed me off. I mean come on who goes around telling a Feral mutant ‘you’re not an animal.’ I mean she could have said ‘ oh Logan don’t worry you’re not a monster.’ I mean really what’s so bad about being like an animal. I personally would rather be like an animal then like most of the humans in the world. And she coulda just told him about her sister in the first place. Rawr! (I know that woulda screwed up the rest of the story line btw she just frustrates me.) Anyway I’m not trying to make it seem like James doesn’t love Kayla (Because he does!) It’s just that Cora is supposed to be his true mate. Like a soul mate kinda thing and they’re both kinda slow on the uptake. Logan is not consciously aware that he loves Cora in that way and neither is Cora But they both instinctually think about each other in moments of stress or moments like when Logan was thinking about having kids. Though at that point he thought it was because he thinks he sees Cora as a little sister or a child. And he, like victor does still see her as a child at this point. (HOLY CRAP THIS IS A LONG ASS AUTHORS NOTE. LOL!)_

 


	13. You did what?!

A twist in the story

** Disclaimer  ** I do not own x-men or any of the movies/plots/dialog/comics just my own twists on them.

_'Animal speak'_

"Human speak"

**"Other languages"**

_/memories/_

Chapter 12: You did what?!

With James

“Where is he?!” James yelled as he manhandled the doctor. The man just stuttered out incoherent babble.

“I can help you.” The feral turned and glared harder as he took in Stryker’s smug form in the door way.

James snarled and stalked towards him walked him out of the room and slammed Stryker into the windowed wall “Six years I’ve been here. No one knew me and then you show up and the next day she’s dead!”

“I tried to warn you!” Stryker gasped out.

“Why didn’t you tell me it was Victor?!” James snarled angrily.

“I didn’t know!” Stryker said in a high voice as James grip on his throat tightened in his anger.

James grip only tightened further as he turned and slammed Stryker in to the opposite wall, “Lie!”

“I swear, on my son’s life!” Stryker’s face was starting to change colors from lack of oxygen. “I Didn’t-” He gagged and James finally dropped him. The feral stepped away and paced for a moment. “Victor’s appetites were becoming too public. I had to lock him up. He felt that I betrayed him! He went AWOL, said he was coming after all of us.” Stryker looked up at James in a pleading manner.

“You didn’t come to warn me, you came to save your own ass!” James growled and started to stalk away.

“So what’s your plan Captain?!” Stryker called after him as he managed to somewhat compose himself. “You can’t beat him Logan, you know you can’t!”

“I’m gonna find ‘em and kill ‘em.”

Stryker followed after him panting “I can give you the tools to defeat him.” James froze and turned. “And we can still save the others.”

“You mean save yourself, Right?”

Stryker smirked lightly “I promise you two things, you will suffer more pain than any other man can endure but you will have your revenge.”

James stared Stryker down. “I come with you, I’m coming for blood. No law, no code of conduct, you point me in the right direction and get the hell outa’ my way.”

\---

With Cora and Victor

“Oh my gods! What the hell happened?!” Cora ran to her alpha and had him sitting on the couch, and stripped off his jacket in seconds. She ran her fingers over the trio of slices in the shoulder of his coat and her head snapped up. “Victor!”

The alpha dropped his head guiltily. “He started it.” Victor responded childishly.

Cora scowled at him in an exasperated manner. “And I bet you finished it, didn’t you?” The smirk that pulled at her alphas mouth was all the answer she needed. “Did you at least try to talk to him?”

Victor frowned “A little, but he was really angry. Way angrier at me then he should have been.”

Cora furrowed her eyebrows and cocked her head slightly in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“I may have confronted his little girlfriend and scared her a bit. But I didn’t touch her or anything, he was way too angry, he looked like he wanted to kill me…”

“And you didn’t think it was at all important to maybe bring me along or at least ask him _why_ he wanted to kill you?!”

Victor narrowed his eyes at her. “It’s not safe. I don’t want you getting in the middle of something dangerous, you could get captured!”

Cora burst out in hysterical laughter. “Victor what did you think I was doing all those years I spent in China. I promise there is no prison or restraint that can hold me for long and I can definitely defend myself. So don’t worry so much.” She smiled in a placating manner and patted his cheek. He growled and tackled her to the floor initiating a mock battle.

\---

With James

The nurse who was drawing lines on him looked up to meet his eyes. “When it starts, whatever the reason is that you’re doing this, focus on that. Maybe it will help.”

James gave her a tired look. “Trust me I’ve been through worse.”

She eyed him sympathetically “No you haven’t.” she walked away without another word and he turned his eyes to Stryker.

“We’re going to make you indestructible, but first we have to destroy you.” James turned his eyes forward and didn’t respond so Stryker continued. “Do you remember what we were looking for in Africa?”

James looked at him again “I remember…”

Stryker smirked at him. “Well I found it. It helped us create a metal compound so strong that it would be able to withstand virtually anything. It’s called Adamantium.” James stared at him and Stryker continued “I can’t put Victor down myself Logan. To kill him you’re going to have to embrace that other side, become the animal.”

James exhaled. “Let’s do this.”

“Oh I almost forgot. We lost you dog-tags…”

“I want new ones.”

“What do you want them to say?”

“Wolverine.”

\---

James clamped down harshly on his breathing tube as the bonding started. And as cheesy as it sounded his life literally did start to flash through his mind.

_/ “We’re brothers Jimmy” /_

_/ “Cora get outa that tree you’re gonna break your neck!” Mismatched eyes smiled down at him from nearly thirty feet up. “Nuh, uhh! Come get me Jimmy!”/_

_/Kayla smiling at him from her spot on the couch “Logan,”/_

_/His claws slammed through the man and he growled at him like an animal. The man just stared down at him in shock. “Son…”/_

_/Sitting on the sofa with Cora’s head in his lap. Carding his fingers through her short messy hair while she slept, Hoping he wouldn’t have to wake her up from nightmares again./_

_/Fighting with his brother “Victor!”/_

_/Kayla dead in his arms/_

_/ His dog-tags sliding across the dirt and his brothers betrayed face. /_

_/Sitting in the kitchen with his pack and laughing as Cora made faces at Victor while his back was turned. /_

_/Picking Kayla up from the school after a long day at work and talking about their day the whole drive home. /_

_/Training Cora with Victor, “That was pitiful Kid, I heard you coming from a mile away.” She pouted and flopped on the ground Indian-style. “Jerk.”/_

_/ “Logan Dinner!” He walked into the kitchen to see Kayla finish setting the table. She smiled at him. /_

_/ “I love you Logan.” / (Kayla)_

_/ Kayla smiling at him, “It means the wolverine.”/_

The unbearable heat and pain lessened a fraction and his thrashing slowed, then nothing.

There was nothing but dark and complete silence for a long moment and then suddenly everything was back and he ached all over. His hearing was the next to start working again and that’s when he heard it.

“The Island? No. The bonding works, we use his DNA for the XI. Erase his memory.”

James eyes snapped open and he thrashed as memories flashed again and he pushed out his claws, screaming silently from under the water in the tank. Zero Watched. “I think he heard you.”

James finally pulled loose of his restraints and flew from the water roaring in fury. Zero let off a round and one clipped the feral’s forehead. He just snarled and vaulted over the edge of the tank. He ran, slaughtering any guard that got in his way and completely ignoring the bullets Zero was wasting on him. When he made it outside he lunched himself of the cliff and into the water below without a second thought.

\---

**TBC…**

**A/N:** _Okay soo. I added some memories to Logan’s flashes and I know there are probably more memories with Cora then with Kayla but he spent more time with his pack then he did with her so it’s logical that there would be a lot of memories involving them compared to the amount with Kayla. Anyway I know this chapter is a little short-ish. I’ll try to make up for it in the next one._

 


	14. New Orleans

A twist in the story

** Disclaimer  ** I do not own x-men or any of the movies/plots/dialog/comics just my own twists on them.

_'Animal speak'_

"Human speak"

**"Other languages"**

_/memories/_

Chapter 13: New Orleans

** A/N: Logan didn’t kill Zero, just beat the total shit outa him. I need him later, unfortunately. **

“This is a terrible idea.” Cora growled, while Victor chuckled as the woman held up dress after dress to Cora’s delicate looking body.

“We don’t really have a choice Cub. LeBeau has a weakness for pretty girls, and we need information.”

Cora pouted “Why’d jimmy have to go with Stryker.” She growled, snatched the next dress out of the woman’s hands and promptly stomped off into the dressing room. A long groan echoed through the shop moments later. Cora stepped out of the stall in a short strapless, black and white lace corset dress, her ankle high biker boots and fingerless black leather gloves, James dog-tags dangling from their permanent home around her neck.

Victor smirked and nodded at her in approval, ignoring the instinct that was screaming at him to cover her up and hide her in a dark closet. The shop assistant stepped up “Miss we could get you some better jewelry.” Cora just snarled at her making the woman recoil and probably nearly piss herself.

She walked with a chuckling Victor to the cashier and paid for the dress, still wearing it, and walked out into the busy streets of New Orleans. “So where do we find this Remy LeBeau?” she reached over and took Yue from Victor letting the snake twist around her neck like a second necklace.

Victor smirked at the Cobra coiled around his cub’s neck and felt a bit better about sending her in alone. “He usually hangs around a bar near here, plays cards. You have your cell?”

Cora nodded at her alpha. “Don’t worry Vic I’m my own personal Taser I won’t let him or anyone get to handsy.” Victor’s smirk widened, he ruffled her hair and pointed her to the bar. Vixen smirked and put a little more sway in her walk, living up to her chosen name as heads turned when she walked by.

\---

With James

“You sure it was Victor?”

James sighed and looked up at his ex-teammate catching the beer he was thrown. “Yeah. “

“Damn, I’m sorry man.” John sat back behind his desk feet up.

“What the hell happened to him after I left?”

John looked uncomfortable for a moment before answering. “He was awful the first day. Almost took Wade’s head off. After that he stared getting really restless, pacing a lot he wouldn’t put your dog tags down. We thought he was gonna snap for sure. Then, I think it was about three or four days after you left this id just popped up outa’ nowhere, tackles him to the ground and starts cuddling him.”

James head snapped around and he stares at Wraith in complete shock. “Excuse me?!” John nodded

“Yeah we were confused too especially when he called her Cub. Didn’t know Victor had a kid. “

“He Doesn’t. She’s a kid we took in. She was supposed to be safe, staying with some old friends of ours. What happened?” James was extremely confused; none of this was making sense anymore.

“She asked about you.” James paled dramatically and John chuckled. “Yeah, Victor told her you left and she flipped out, started yelling and smacking him then started crying.” James actually looked a bit sick and seriously guilty. “I never thought I’d live to see the day Victor Creed willingly hugged someone. But he did and when she calmed down she glared at him and told him that they were going after you.”

James continued to listen, his confusion only growing. “Stryker said Victor couldn’t leave and she got pissed off saying something about Victor not being a human’s house pet. Stryker tried to grab her and Victor flipped and threw him into a tree. They left while we were distracted.”

“He was lying to me.”

(^ _THE REST OF THE CONVERSATION ABOVE WENT THE SAME AS IN THE MOVIE._ ^ _James is still pissed at Victor and still thinks he killed Kayla, he just thinks that Stryker lied to him about everything else to get him to cooperate. He doesn’t know what to do about Cora yet._ )

\---

With Cora

“You Remy LeBeau?”

Gambit continued to shuffle his cards, as he turned slightly to see the owner of the sweet sounding voice. His eyes widened as he took in the delicate looking girl. She had one green eye and one violet set in a sweet round face, which was framed with long wild black hair. She was dressed in a lacy dress and biker boots. He smiled and turned around fully. “Who’s askin’?”

Cora gave him a flirty smile. “You can call me Vixen, Darlin’.”

Remy smirked setting his cards aside and offered her a chair, she instead plopped herself into his lap, smiling at his momentarily surprised face. He recovered quickly and settled his hands on her hips lightly. ( _I have absolutely no clue about how to write Gambit’s accent so I’m just gonna try my best… Sorry_ ) “Well, Cher’ how can Remy be of service?”

They spoke for a while just getting to know each other. Gambit had just said something about her eyes and Cora smiled and shifted, the dog-tags jingled and drew Gambit’s attention. His eyes widened and flashed red.

Vixen noticed this and she laid her hand on his cheek drawing his attention back to her face. Her other hand closed around the Tags, all remnants of her charade dropping. “I need your help Remy. I’m trying to find someone very important to me, the owner of these Tags.” Cora’s eyes watered slightly and the anger in Remy’s died a bit.

Gambit nodded and motioned for her to get up, she did and he stood after her. “Perhaps it would be better to speak of such matters elsewhere.”

Cora nodded “Could you excuse me for a moment though, I need to make a quick call. I’ll be right back.” She walked to the restrooms and pulled out her cell to call Victor. The Feral was about halfway through the number when the commotion started. She clicked end and hurried back out to the main part of the building.

Cora’s eyes widened as she saw James flying through the wall in the back of the bar, propelled by Remy’s energy infused Cards. “Remy!” He spared Cora a brief apologetic glance before following James out the newly made exit.

James got to his feet only to see Victor standing over an unconscious John Wraith. He elbowed Gambit and extended his claws. Victor stared for a moment in shock before recovering and plastering his usual smirk on his face. “Ooh shiny.” James growled.

“Tell me something Jimmy; d’you even know how to kill me?”

Cora jumped out of the hole and landed next to Gambit checking to make sure he wasn’t dead and going completely unnoticed by the brothers. James glared at his brother. “I’m Gonna cut your goddamn head off. See if that works.” Victor Chuckled.

Cora gasped and they both charged forward. Victor dropped to all fours and James dropped sliding to the ground and kicked Victor over him. Cora growled in frustration. For once beating the crap out of each other was not going to help anything. “James, Victor!” She tried calling them, but was ignored.

They started another charge and Cora launched herself forward, she got in front of Victor causing him to skid to a stop in surprise as she took the brunt of James attack, his newly metal coated claws piercing through her abdomen, right below her rib cage.

James froze immediately when he smelled her blood and his heart nearly stopped when he looked down and met her mismatched eyes. She gasped in pain and gripped his wrist, “Quite a punch you got there Jimmy.” James eyes widened and he retracted his claws immediately causing her to hiss, she slumped to the ground and Victor rushed forward to support her. James growled and stepped back causing Cora to snatch his wrist and jerk him forward “Stop being an asshole and tell me why the hell you’re trying to kill your brother!” James snarled and jerked his hand back. “Fuck Jimmy, You abandoned me in China, left Victor to a Psycho human with control issues and just ran me through with your shiny new claws, Stop acting like an over grown child throwing a tantrum and tell me why your so pissed!”

James glare weakened and guilt bubbled in his gut. “He killed her Cora!”

Cora and Victor’s eyes both widened in shock and confusion. “What?!”

“Kayla, He Killed Kayla. He left claw marks on the car and she was dead in the forest just off the road, covered in blood.” His voice had lowered to a soft angry growl.

Cora looked up at Victor over her shoulder. He looked just about as shocked as she felt.

“No, I didn’t!” James looked surprised “I confronted her and probably scared her shitless, but I never touched her. I left her standing by her car, she was perfectly fine.”

James dropped into a sitting position in front of Cora. “No, You…” His face showed his shock and disbelief clearly.

“He’s tellin’ the truth Jimmy.” Cora looked up at him and gave him watery puppy-eyes. “Please. Please don’t fight each other anymore.” She gave Victor the same look and both brothers slumped in defeat.

Cora leaned forward and wrapped her arms around James’ middle her face pressing into his stomach “I missed you, Jimmy.”

James carded his fingers through her hair out of reflex and found himself smiling softly at her. He looked up at his brother and gave him a hard look still not sure exactly how he felt. Victor just gave him a smirk. “You can still kill Stryker and his little lackeys.” Cora sighed and then jerked up remembering Remy.

“Shit!” She smacked James hard on the arm, startling him. “Did you have to hit Remy so hard, He won’t be any good to anyone if he’s brain damaged!”

She got up and ran back over to where Remy was starting to become coherent. She stooped down and helped prop him up “You okay?” He saw James and his eyes turned red. “No! Remy Calm down, Nobody is gonna hurt you!” She moved into his line of sight and blocked his view of both brothers. Remy stared at the little Feral and his eyes slowly faded back to brown.

“Sorry Cher’.” Cora smiled at him and pointed to Jimmy.

“That’s the idiot I was looking for anyway, Now are you alright?” She helped him to his feet and Victor and James came up behind her making Gambit tense. He nodded vaguely and tried to back away still wary of James and now Victor as well since he was an unknown and also wearing tags.

“We need you to take us to the island Bub. “ James growled and Cora slapped his arm when she saw fear flash through Remy’s Eyes.

“Gods James, that’s like you asking me to take you back to the Asylum! Don’t be such a Jerk!” James looked a little sheepish but still glared when he looked back at Remy.

Gambit shook his head violently and pulled away from Cora. “No! I ain’t ever goin’ back there!” Cora sighed sadly understanding his fear but James just growled.

James stepped forward grabbed Gambit and slammed him against the alley wall. “Okay here’s the deal Bub, you’re gonna take us to this island so I can kill Stryker and Zero and pretty much every one you hate in this world, understand?!”

Remy stared at him wide eyed. “You’re really gonna kill ‘em?”

Cora smiled at him over James shoulder. “Yep! He fucked with the wrong pack.” James released Remy with a grunt and the Cajun slumped against the wall for a moment before looking back up at the trio of Feral’s and nodding.

\---

**TBC…**

**A/N:** _Okay so James and Victors issues are solved for the moment…Note I said the moment and not completely. Also something that I have neglected to mention before is that Cora **is** a bit unhinged. You can’t really spend 4 years in an asylum as a young neglected/abused child and not go a little crazy… her mind is just a little twisted, and quite literally works like that of an animal most of the time, Sometimes certain words will trigger her to lose it and she will lash out. Anyway, Stryker’s crappily laid plans are falling apart at the seams, Bwahahahah! Oh and Victor didn’t kill Wraith he’s just out cold. Cora Is Bonding with Gambit, which is good! She is pretty much the only reason the pack ever expands… not exactly sure whether or not he’s going to be pack or not yet. And Cora keeps conveniently forgetting to mention that she practically adopted a little blue circus performer. lol. I felt like this chapter didn’t flow as well as others which really irritated me. I fixed it up as much as possible but I’m still not particularly thrilled with it, so sorry if it seems a little rushed or disconnected I tried…_

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	15. The Island

A twist in the story

** Disclaimer  ** I do not own x-men or any of the movies/plots/dialog/comics just my own twists on them.

_'Animal speak'_

"Human speak"

**"Other languages"**

_/memories/_

Chapter 14: The Island

( _They had to take Wraith to a hospital… oops. Lol._ )

Cora, Victor, James, and her Familiars sat huddled in the cargo area of Remy’s plane. Cora groaned and pressed her face further into Victor’s stomach as the turbulence rocked the plane. James grunted and shifted to get up, he maneuvered himself into the passenger seat of the small plane and Remy chuckled. “Don’t like flyin’ huh?”

James gave the Cajun a withering look and growled. “I’m fine.”

Remy smirked “You sure? you’ve got a bit of sweat on yer’ brow there…”

James glared at him “Very funny! Just keep your eyes on the-”

“On what the Clouds?” Remy asked mockingly, “Keep my eyes on the clouds?” He raised an eyebrow and tried not to laugh at the Feral’s distress.

“We’re going up and down like a freakin’ yoyo here, where’d you get this thing anyway?!”

“Oh this is my baby! I won her in a game,” He smirked over at James again. “Jacks over Fives.” James sighed when he heard Cora laugh from the back. “Relax, we’re almost there.”

Cora made her way to the front. “Remy we’re gonna need you to land.” His eyes widened and filled with panic. “Don’t worry you don’t have to go near the facility. Pan, Rasta, and Apollo will stay with you too. Please Remy?” Gambit swallowed heavily and locked eyes with her; he stared for a moment and finally nodded. Vixen smiled up at him, leaned in and pressed a kiss to his cheek, ignoring the involuntary growl that erupted from James’ throat. “Thank you.”

\---

James opened the door and the three feral’s snuck into the main building of the facility. They decided to split up since Stryker didn’t know they were together again. So Cora went with Victor and James went the direct route; Right to Stryker.

James walked into the hospital like room slowly taking in his surroundings carefully. He looked up quickly when Stryker spoke. “Logan, welcome back to the war.” He didn’t look up from whatever was on the table as he spoke.

James bristled, “Before I gut you, I wanna know why.”

“I needed your powers for the pool.” He still didn’t look up.

“The what?”

“The mutant killer, Deadpool. Years of searching and finding, finding the right powers that could all co-exist in one body without ripping it apart.” Stryker finally turned and regarded James with a slightly unhinged look. “My son, was the first piece of the puzzle, you Logan, were the last. You made weapon XI possible. I asked you to help but, you said you wanted the quiet life.”

James glowered at the clearly deranged man, “Well, I’ve learned that nothing motivates the men in your family like revenge.” Stryker smiled at James and stared at something behind him.

Wolverine narrowed his eyes in confusion and looked behind him. He inhaled sharply when he saw the woman standing there. “Who are you?!”

“Oh, she’s real old friend.” James’ eyes widened and it was suddenly harder to breath. He didn’t notice when Victor and Cora settled outside the room to watch or hear Victor near silent intake of breath when he saw the woman his brother claimed to be dead. “Did you really think we’d just let you walk away? You’re a dangerous man, and we like to keep an eye on dangerous men.”

James was still panting lightly from shock when Stryker spoke to Kayla “Tell him about the day you died.” James turned his head to look at her, pain and shock filling his eyes.

Kayla kept her face carefully emotionless. “They gave me a shot of hydrochlorothiazide (sp?). It reduces the heart rate so low that it appears to have flat-lined.”

Striker spoke then “Don’t be angry with her, she’s a real credit to her species.” James looked up in disbelief, when would the lies end? “Did you know her sister has diamond hard skin? Kayla’s mutation is tacto-hypnosis, quite useful in a seduction. It was never real old friend.”

Victor had to physically hold Cora back to keep her from going to rip out Stryker’s and probably Kayla’s throats. Both hidden feral’s were radiating with fury on James behalf but Victor knew that if he let Cora attack right now they’d probably never get out alive…

James looked up at Kayla, "It was real for me.” Cora’s struggling stopped at that and just stared at James blankly. Victor loosened his grip and Vixen slumped against him.

“I told you if you came down this road you wouldn’t like what you found.” James didn’t look at Stryker, Cora felt her eyes water at James pain and she clenched her hands into fists.

“That story you told me, about the man who picked flowers for the moon. I had it backwards, I thought you were the moon and I was your wolverine but you’re the trickster aren’t you, I’m just the fool who got played.” Kayla’s eyes watered, “The worst part was that I should have known but I ignored my instincts. I ignored what I really am. Well, that won’t ever happen again.” James stood and gave one last look at the others in the room before turning and leaving. Cora jumped up and took off after him while Victor stayed to deal with Stryker and Kayla.

James was almost to the outer fence when Cora caught up. He heard her and turned just in time to catch her, as she jumped at him. “I’m so sorry…” She was crying enough for both of them but his eyes still stung. James pulled her close and buried his nose in her hair, taking in her scent and relishing in the comfort of his Pack. “I’m so sorry Jimmy that was awful.”

He shushed her and let her go, forcing a small smile to cross his face.

With Victor

Victor watched a moment longer and listened as Kayla began to speak. “Colonel,”

Stryker didn’t look up, “Not now Kayla.”

“I’ve done everything you asked. My sister, you said if I helped you, you’d let her go!”

Stryker turned and gave her a placating smile. “Kayla it’s not as simple as that… her mutation unique, quite beautiful, we just need just a little more time to analyze it. That all-”

Stryker’s statement was cut off by a heavy growl originating from the shadows. They both turned towards it. Victor stepped out and gave the pair a menacing smirk. “I didn’t hurt you last time girly. You’re not gonna be so lucky this time.”

“Victor,-” Stryker turned to the Alpha feral with a placating smile, he subtly reached for his holstered gun. His hand never reached its destination, Victor’s hand shooting out and catching him across the side of the head. Stunning him and his hand hitting the butt of the gun and knocking it to the floor. Victor kicked it away and looked at his Ex-boss bleeding, and shocked on the floor for a good long moment before turning away with sadistic grin to look back at Kayla, the she-bitch who broke his baby brother and pulled apart his pack.

For once the clear fear in her scent and eyes did not excite him at all. He was just angry, angry that she had hurt his Pack, angry at himself for letting Jimmy leave in the first place, and most of all angry that he knew that killing her wouldn’t fix anything.

He growled loudly in frustration and snatched Kayla up by the throat his instincts taking over in his aggravated anger, she screamed in pain and terror.

\---

James’ head snapped around at the scream, he took an involuntary step back towards the facility. Cora grabbed his arm and held it tightly he looked at her and briefly saw the vulnerable unsure teenager from all those years ago in her eyes.

“Don’t, Please Jimmy, Please don’t leave us again! Not for her…” An emotion that James couldn’t immediately place flashed through her eyes and James tugged her foreword and into his arms.

He pressed a kiss into her hair. “I’m not going to leave you, never again. I Promise Cub.” Cora nodded and let herself be pulled along as they ran back to stop Victor.

\---

“Victor!” James shouted at his brother drawing his attention. Victor snarled at him and Cora both Instincts and rage clouding his mind. James snarled back, Victor dropped Kayla and charged at his brother. Cora moved to Kayla’s side and helped her get her bearings, while James and Victor fought.

Kayla looked at female feral, “Thank you.”

Cora snarled at her bearing her fangs. “Don’t. If it were up to me I’d ‘ave let Vic kill you.”

“Then why-” Kayla was beyond confused.

Cora gave her an Irritated look “Because you’re important to Jimmy and despite what you’ve done it seems he doesn’t want you dead, and Jimmy being happy is more important to me then wanting to rip our throat out.”

Their attentions were drawn back to the fight when James tackled Victor through a glass wall, taking their fight to the floor below. They ran to the broken ball and looked down in time to see James pull his claws out of Victor’s chest and hear Victor moan in pain.

The Brothers made eye contact and Victor snarled at his brother his instincts yelling at him that his brother was challenging his authority as alpha.

James snarled back, “Calm down Victor!” Threatening the alpha with metal claws, Kayla yelled at him in a panic telling him he wasn’t an animal, trying to keep him from slaughtering his brother.

Cora scoffed at the woman. “Are you stupid? He’s a Feral; of course he’s an animal! His brain runs off animal instincts not human ones and no matter how much you wish he was a human he’s not he’s a Mutant and an animalistic one at that.” The little Feral gave her a narrowed eyed look and jumped through the window into the room below rolling in to a crouch to break the fall.

She smacked James Upside the head grabbing his attention. “What part of threatening him did you think would calm him down when he was pissed and in animal mode?!” James pulled away with a slightly embarrassed grunt and Cora moved to keep Victor from attacking again Putting herself between the two and stopping Victor in his tracks as his mind registered her scent and prevented him from harming his cub.

“Come on Vic.” Her hands cupped his jaw and she whined in her throat watching the emotions flashing through her alphas instinct darkened eyes. He was fighting to regain control, but his anger was still pushing his animal into a frenzy of bloodlust. His claws dug into her sides, tearing her black tank top, she winced her whimper becoming louder making both men growl. She sent a light shock through her finger tips and Victors eyes cleared. He retracted his claws and pulled his cub to him nuzzling her neck in apology, Cora kissed his temple and pulled away looking at Kayla who had taken the stairs down to join them.

“Logan? James looked up and the other two growled lowly, “My sister, they have my sister. Please, I didn’t trick you into loving me.” Cora felt like something was clawing at her belly eating away at her, and her throat tightened around the snarl trying to rip free. “It was real for me too.”

James looked at her and Cora honestly couldn’t place the emotion on his face but she knew it made her feel worse; she clenched her fingers in to Victor’s jacket and tried to push her emotions away. “Please, I’m so sorry. They have my sister!” Kayla looked and seemed legitimately distraught about the entire situation and as much as Cora wanted to, she just couldn’t bring herself to hate Kayla.

James glanced over at his pack, Victor just stared back but Cora just couldn’t bring herself to look at him knowing his decision was already made his Promises be damned, and she would not keep him from what he wanted. He looked back at Kayla. “Where is she?”

Stryker saw the group running towards the cells where the other mutants were being kept and yelled at the nurse, “Activate Weapon XI!”

The nurse looked startled “The bonding process isn’t complete…”

“Just do it! Now!”

\---

They ran into the Cell block and Cora nearly gagged at the massive group of mutants caged like wild animals. James started slashing locks open and Cora short-circuited the ones he missed. The doors flew open, and Mutants rushed out into the walk way. Kayla hugged her sister tightly and James watched on.

When everyone was free Kayla and James began to lead the crowd towards the nearest exit. The doors began to slide open and figure stood in the light. James claws slid out and the mutant in the exit reciprocated, familiar swords sliding from between knuckles. “Kayla get these kids out of here.”

“Logan…”

“Find another Way out.” Kayla pushed the group along herding them away with help from her sister. Victor and Cora didn’t move. Victor go please, help them, Make sure they’re safe.” Victor growled but trusted that his Brother could handle one opponent. He ran after the kids rounding up the stragglers but Cora didn’t move. “Cora! Go, Now!”

Cora narrowed her eyes at him. “No. I’m not a child and I’m not defenseless, and I’m not going to let you break your promise by making me run away!”

James snarled and turned his head to look at her fully, and for possibly the first time not seeing the cub they’d taken in but the serious, and very much adult (regardless of how young she looked physically) Feral who wasn’t going to run from protecting her Pack. He growled and turned back to what he thought might have once been Wade. “Fine.”

Cora smirked and raised her hands and took her stance, electricity sparking off her fingertips as she focused the flow to her hands.

\---

The group of young mutants cowered down as the men shot at them. Victor growled loudly as the bullet wounds healed quickly, as he sheltered two younger girls. Kayla’s sister shielded the others using her mutation to deflect the bullets as they retreated back to cover. The Boy with his eyes covered pushed forward “I can help, let me at them!” Victor restrained a snort and Kayla nodded to Emma to go help him. The diamond Mutant covered for the boy and led him forward. He lifted the metal eye cover and took out the entire upper floor. “Did I get them?”

“Yeah…” Emma muttered in an awed tone. She turned “Let’s go.”

“I can’t go.” Kayla gave her sister a serious look hoping she’d take it as her wanting to go back for Logan and not what it really was. “I have to stay here, you take them.” Emma stared at her in shock. “Go!” Emma turned reluctantly and led the teens away pulling the practically blind teen with her. Victor did not follow; he stood over Kayla watching as she pulled her hand away from her stomach a fresh coat of blood covering it. She looked up at him and they stared at each other.

Finally Victor nodded and turned back the way they’d come, going to help his pack.

\---

**TBC…**

**A/N:** _I am soo sorry it took so long to update this!!! I was unfortunately having some personal issues that needed to be dealt with, and then holidays and then my computer got sick and my writing software like died and got erased and I had to wait for forever for my uncle to send me the program so I could reinstall it and it was awful and not fun and … well … yeah you get the idea. I’m gonna work on updating my stories in the next week or so. So please forgive me and look forward to the updates that I promise are coming!_

 


	16. Fights, memories and missing family

A twist in the story

**Disclaimer** I do not own x-men or any of the movies/plots/dialog/comics just my own twists on them.

_'Animal speak'_

"Human speak"

**"Other languages"**

_/memories/_

Chapter 15: Fights, memories, and missing family

Wade flung Cora aside like a rag doll. She hit the ground and didn't move to get up as she gasped for air, waiting for her ribs to heal and. James went about distracting his former teammate to give her the time she needed. He led Deadpool away, taking the fight to higher ground.

When Victor finally appeared, Cora managed to pull herself up "Where?" Cora wordlessly pointed up and they began the ascent, following the sounds of clashing Adamantium.

Victor arrived first and started in on the fight. They fought back to back until Wade teleported to the opposite side of the rim of concrete. Cora pulled herself to the top and started around the rim in the opposite direction of Victor.

The mutant killer blasted Victor into the concrete and Cora leapt onto his back while he was distracted wrapping her hands around his neck and releasing the meager remnants of her electricity into his body, stunning him and bringing him to his knees. But the moment she loosened her grip she was flung over his shoulder and into Victor's still recovering chest, ripping a groan of pain from them both.

They looked up in time to see Deadpool's eyes bleed red once again. James came up behind him and decapitated him just as the heated beams were released Cora nearly smirked when he kicked Deadpool over the edge. James looked over at them and Cora flopped back into her Alpha's chest. "That… was awesome."

James pulled Cora up then Victor, hugging her and giving his brother a meaningful look over the top of her head. "Cora I need you to go with Victor and find the Cajun."

Cora just shook her head and looked up at James with a glare. "No, I'm going with you. I'll help you find her. Then we're all leaving together." James' resolve weakened at her mismatched glare and he nodded. Victor nodded as well and jumped down taking off to make sure the children escaped and to find Remy.

Moments later the concrete beneath the two remaining Feral's began to crumble. They glanced at each other with wide eyes and jumped as well. They hit the ground and rolled a few feet James making a tiny crater and Cora fracturing a few bones. They looked back up only to see the tower of concrete breaking apart, an enormous chunk heading right for them.

Cora closed her eyes and James grabbed her arm pulling her towards him. When Cora reopened them it was to Remy's voice and clouds of settling dust. "Miss me?" Remy smirked and walked towards them reaching out and pulling them to their feet. "You know when you said you were gonna kill everybody I thought you were exaggerating…"

James smirked at him "Do I look like a man who exaggerates?" Cora grinned and leaned into Jimmy's side relief and exhaustion finally flooding her.

Remy grinned and shook James hand, "You're welcome."

James heard her then. Kayla, she was calling for him. He looked back at Remy "There are kids trying to get off the island, split up, and go!"

Remy nodded "I'm on it."

James turned and ran out into the dust, Cora in tow "Kayla! Kayla!"

He dropped to his knees beside her, Cora stood behind him resolutely not watching their moment. "I love you." Cora bit down on her lip hard enough to taste the blood. Kayla kissed him "I'm so cold…"

"Listen to me I'm gonna get you outa here. You understand?" Kayla nodded, and James scooped her up. With Cora still following behind they headed in the direction of Remy's plane. When the first shot rang out Cora froze and it felt like everything went slow motion. Two bullets in James back and he went down dropping Kayla. She snapped out of it and lunged at Stryker a snarl on her face and rage boiling in her gut.

The third bullet stopped Cora in her tracks. She stumbled in her steps and fell to her knees. She looked down to the bloody patch blooming on her dark shirt and gasped in pain. James turned with a roar just as Cora felt the numbness start to slip into her brain; she stayed awake until she saw Stryker shoot her pack mate in the head that was when everything blurred out into nothing.

Next thing she knew she was back in the plane with Victor, Remy, and all her Familiars. She shot up as soon as coherent thought returned, "JAMES!"

Victor put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back into a laying position, her head propped on Apollo's side. "Calm down Cub. He's alive, but he was gone by the time I got there, the dumbass Cajun Let 'em leave."

Remy looked back at them from the pilot's seat. "He was actin' real funny, he didn't know who I was or where he was and he kept askin' what his name was."

Cora's mismatched eyes widened and tears welled up, "Oh gods, Stryker shot him in the head! I remember, It was the last thing I saw before I blacked out!" the other two stared at her in shock. "We have to find him Victor, What if he doesn't remember us?"

"We'll find him cub! I promise." Victor looked up at Remy, who nodded. "The Cajun's gonna help too so don't worry, we'll find him."

Pan and Rasta curled into her side, for comfort and Cora clenched her fist in Victor's Jacket, "Okay."

**END.**

**Watch for the coming sequel to Twist.**

**A/N:** _okay so this chapter is crap and really short, but its also the intro for the rest of the story as you will notice that this is basically where the movie ends. This was for some bizarre reason obnoxiously hard for me to write… but I managed to crank it out… even if it’s not great, I promise the sequel will hopefully be better cuz almost all of this is my own from now till the beginning of the first X-Men movie which is like from now which is 1970ish to when the first X-men movie starts which I’m assuming starts in the late 80s early 90s… so we’ve got a while… still working out all my twists and issues…._


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